Gillian en route

Gillian's seat is barely cold and I am leaping in to talk about myself. She is on her way to Varuna, her fingers itching to start writing, I'm sure. I haven't figured out how to do the segue thing yet, but here is a little about me: I've been writing since I was a child, and selling fiction since 1993. Each sale still surprises me, and each publication delights. I've sold over 50 short stories, though some of these never appeared due to magazine collapse, anthology failure etc. Some of the anthologies I wish hadn't collapsed are 'Radiation from Space', 'Horror' (edited by Stephen Studach) and the Artemis Crime anthologies. I would have liked to see those. My youngest child started school today, so for the first time in seven years, I have more than a couple of hours to myself. Well, starting tomorrow; today was my son's last day of school holidays and we went to see Nanny McPhee. That's one of the benefits of having kids; you get to see kids' movies and no one even blinks at you. I tend to view these things uncritically, because, well, they're kids' movies, and if I get anything but boredom from them, I'm a step ahead. Nanny McPhee I liked, though the scene where Colin Firth is called a randy bugger (or words to that affect) was a little difficult to explain to the boys.
I'm not sure what I'll talk about over the next couple of weeks. Maybe some treasures from my library, some thoughts on writing and how 'real' people see writers, and a recipe or two. Tomorrow I'll post a recipe from my family history recipe book.