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Some quick announcements then I will get back to Conflux stuff. (Yes, Conflux is over, but I was too busy having fun yesterday to blog iat, and besides, I owe recipes).

1. Australia beat Japan!!

2. Check this out: http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/004280.html One day a story of mine will be accepted and the magazine will have a gentle and elegant cover. In the interim, at least I am getting into outstanding company!

From Thursday I get solid writing time for a fortnight. Sanity may return. Note the 'may'.

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There is lots and lots more to report from Conflux. It was a very busy and happy convention and I suspect I won't get through it all. First and most important, I said I would blog that Roger broke the blue dalek (but that it can be mended) so now I have.

I got to play with the remote controlled dalek and exterminated a swarm of imaginary ants, but my shoulders were too broad for the full-sized version, which was a pity because Karin Marin had given me her dalek-space. The upside of this was that I helped mind handbags and things and the other handbag-minder turned out to be someone who was a few years ahead of me at Melbourne University. The dalek-room became infested with memories of time past and I finally discovered why the Melbourne University dalek had an unusual paint job.

I did my other volunteering on a stall in one of the dealers' rooms. In my usual fashion I encouraged Richard Harland and Trudi Canavan (in fact, anyone I knew whose books Donna stocks) to buy copies of their own books. I told Richard how very lurid The Black Crusade was and he agreed with me. I told other people and they bought copies to check my description. Nice people kept giving me books, too. OK, so these were review copies and I have to hand them on, but it means that there will be new reviews on the ASif site shortly, so keep an eye on ASif.

More in a few minutes (I am doing this *while* meeting with my publisher to report Conflux to her) but let me just remind you that the Australian Speculative Fiction Carnival will take place on girliejones' site in 2 days and you can send me posts for that (or to philologa (at) gmail.com ) but also, if you have or know of any posts about Conflux, send them to me. I will forward them to the Carnival, but I will also forward them to Rob Hood and we will have a final arbiter of silliness.

All this reminds me of a moment in the museum cafe during Conflux. We are all looking at each other's name tags wondering how we came to be sitting togeher. There was a dearth of familiar names and faces. Then someone gave their LJ name...

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Serious stuff happened at Conflux - it wasn't all daleks and bubbles. There was a great deal of discussion of the state of publishing and on the mechanics of writing and publishing fiction. There was a great deal of quiet celebration of good deals for some very good writers and a lot of expectations raised for Orbit's new Australian imprint.

The most interesting dicussion (despite the fact that I am seldom a horror writer, and even when I am I don't intend to be) was of the state of the horror short story. Ellen Datlow pointed out that the year's best could double its wordcount without losing quality. That's a lot of good horror fiction out there!!

The soon-to-be-released Eidolon anthology looks like a must-buy, since it contains stories by Margo Lanagan, Garth Nix and Sean Williams. (note: I did not trip Garth up this convention.)

Jim Frenkel (Tor) suggested that a lot of the mid-list in the novel market is being taken up by small and medium press and that major publishers are not the only place writers ought to be looking. He said that Tor gets c 5,000 unsolicited submissions a year. Everyone else sighed and said "So many". I sighed for a different reason: one small press I know gets 7,000. This industry has moments of lunacy.

Jim also pointed out that fantasy has boomed in the last ten years, to the point where the market is mature enough to boast the appearance of mediocre novels. None of the writers in the audience put up their hands to say "Me, I write such novels."

Stephanie Smith (HarperVoyager) said something important to all writers. Web reviews are now as influential as print reviews. I know one web review editor who will be *particularly* pleased to hear this!!

Cat Sparks (Agog!) - on a different panel - explained something which is becoming increasingly obvious to Gillian-as-reviewer: the difference between self-publishing and small press is a good editor. Editing has the potential to transform a work and to bring out its strengths in my view, so it was good to hear this being said in a very public forum.

I ought to quickly mention the food panel. Anna Tambour waxed lyrical about writing and food and so did Marianne de Pierres. Deborah Biancotti was foodlovingly sardonic. Cary Lenehan was educational and Stuart Barrow was a bit of all of the above. I was simply subversive. I told the story of the tragic cookbook I will probably never have the courage to own. I was less-than-polite about a particular spec fic cookbook with not-very-wonderful recipes. I said - quite adamantly - that foodies ought to read Brian Jacques. A bit later I fed the audience spices and herbs from various periods and managed to astonish a young man by telling him he had just sampled 'Medieval viagra'. In other words, I was my usual disruptive self.

Watch the blog later in the week for the recipes from the feast. Apart from that, Conlfux is over and life can continue.