one announcement hidden in 6 tonnes of grouch

Today was so skewiff that I didn't get lunch till 4 pm. I have managed to acquire a sinus headache and a sore neck, because obviously everything else wrong wasn't quite enough.

I haven't written any fiction, either. This isn't so much because of being unwell, though that was a contributing factor. It's because all sorts of things happened late around me and I had to process things much more than I expected and it all took longer than I expected (45 minutes turned into 6 hours!) and it came out of my own worktime.

You would not have liked me this morning. As I've been saying this last hour, "Gillian is now available with 30% less grumble."

I can get that down to 70% less grumble if only friends and colleagues would allow me my writing time. Writing fiction helps keep me sane and all I've written during this winter has been a short story. Which was good, but not enough. Not nearly enough. Too many people want to be the single, sole exception to being allowed to contact me during my quiet time or to expect me to be free because they are.

I shall write tonight, regardless of aches, pains and obligations because I'm reaching the stage where I'm not nice to know. I'm never nice to know when I ought to be writing but find myself doing everything but.

So, tonight's plans. Coffee with Kate and Stu as a break in my writing - for the record, they asked me days ago, so the visit was planned and my writing was planned around it. They are not producers of grump. Painrelievers to help with the writing. A salad late instead of dinner because lunch wasn't till 4 pm. If anyone rings and I'm not at a natural break, I shall not answer the phone. No single, sole exceptions. Not even for family or my best friends. Tonight I shall write 3,000 words.

If the Carnival goes up (which it should), you'll find it at the Conflux blog. I'll give you a permalink and do the fanfare thing when the post is up *and* I have electricity back.

Tomorrow I promise to be nicer. May the niceness last until the electrictiy is back on!

Tomorrow you can't ring me anyway, in case you were wondering. My electricty will be out.

Australian Speculative Fiction Carnival

The evening is definitely better than the day. This is because the Australian Speculative Fiction Blog Carnival is up. Yay!!!!

For the first time ever, this was Carnival by committee. Thank you, Karen (chair extraordinaire) and the rest of the Conflux committee. A special thank you to kitzen_kat, who volunteered to help (saving me a bunch of work) when we were one person short: she did her bit under rather complicated and difficult circumstances, too.

Since the French almost beat the British in colonising Australia, I'm going to call this version "The Bastille Affair." This means that anyone who wants to toast the Conflux Committee should do so with fine wine. We have had too many mixed drinks recently, and need to work on our wine palates now (that meeting has to be one of the oddest I have ever attended - and the minutes are already out!).

PS That last paragraph is not a hint to take advantage of being on the Conflux site and to register before the prices rise and to book for the Prohibition banquet. Well, maybe it *is* a hint, but it's a subtle one. This means you might have to feign surprise if you suddenly realise there are only 2 weeks before registration goes up by $40 and you might have to say "Well, while I'm here, I might as well book." Or not.

PPS Last year's Minicon is up on the site now (I didn't do it - it was Mr Herring!) if anyone wants to take a look and see what sort of things were asked of whom. Some of those discussions are rather strong arguments for turning up this year.