(no subject)

I don't often report my dreams, but this one you need to know about.

I was sitting at a cafe with Liz Argall (Liz, what were you doing in my dream - inquiring minds want to know?) and I was very enthusiastic. We had been discussing how some short stories related to other short stories and I had been using paper and diagrams to describe some amazing theory about short stories as linked sets. (The theory never actually appeared in the dream, so it's no use asking for it.)

"I think that next year the Conflux Short Story Competition should be for duologies." I drew two boxes and linked them with an arrow. They were bigger boxes than the ones we had used for the earlier diagrams, to reflect that I was talking about books. I felt very smug as I made them three dimensional. I can't draw for nuts, which explains why so few almost-straight lines made me smug.

"Two volumes?" asked Liz.

I nodded.

"That's interesting," she said. She started drawing one box, which was much nicer than either of mine and just a tad bigger again. "That could be done if you..." and I woke up.

I think this was reminding me to remind you that the competition closes tomorrow. Not only does June only have thirty days, but Australia reaches an end of those thirty days before almost everyone. The word limit is still 2,000 words, despite the yearning note my dreamself had in her voice.

Liz, if you care to finish your dreamsentence, I really want to know what you were going to say.

(no subject)

I promised updates on my reading. I've changed the order a bit and things have added to the list, so there is very little overlap between my initial list and what I'm actually reading. In fact, the only overlap is the review books, and even they've changed a little. (and if this post makes sense, it's no thanks to my brain, which is apparently on holiday and has forgotten to send me a postcard to say where or even when it will be back)

Yesterday I read a Louise Cooper novel and William Morris's Old French romances and today I read a Catherine Asaro book.

Of course, today's not quite finished, which leaves me hope that maybe I'll get more reading time after Dr Who (Dr Who!!! yay!!!!). I really need this, because after I totalled the seventeen books I was going to read I then found a whole heap more that need to be read before they get put away. I don't have unlimited time, either (as well as the reading yesterday, for instance, I wrote a blasphemous article about the Princes in the Tower - I am a bit nervous, waiting to see if the editor likes it), but the reading is fun and I'm making slow headway. Some are books I've wanted to read for a while, some are for reviewing, some are for other kinds of work. It's my quiet time before the fiction-writing storm and before teaching starts up again.

(no subject)

May I just say how very much I love my friends. What could have been a very bad week was quite special, thanks to thtem.