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Important Conflux updates!! http://conflux.org.au/blog/2008/09/15/a-couple-of-announcements/

Today has been so frantically busy and yesterday was even more so that I just want to stop and breathe for a bit. It gets like this every year just before Rosh Hashanah and is the price I pay for not having a normal job. This year it's a bit tougher than usual because of the inflammation thing, but I'm making big inroads into the things that need big inroads made, and I'm getting there.

I have three intensely long lists and they are definitely getting shorter. The lists have two levels of items on them, too - I want to do 3 more book reviews before I leave, but if I don't well then, I don't. Whereas I am teaching on Wedesnday for four hours and it is non-negotiable.

It doesn't look very exciting from the outside, but it's a wow of a ride from within. I did a load of washing before, to give me a break. And in a few days time I shall have a proper rest, which is the whole aim, and I shall get well for Conflux. And for me.

Oh dear, I think I just made a New Year's resolution.

Workshop dreaming

I've decided that I'm going to do a great deal of dreaming for Conflux. It's the theme after all.

There's a reason for this. I just realised that I'll be so busy during it (busy includes coffee and chat and maybe 5 kg of chocolate and yummy toffees - I'm hoping to share them all, especially the chocolate) that I might not get to any of the workshops. In an alternate universe I would get to them all, but this year I'm getting all sorts of Confluxy goodness in other ways and the only one I'm certain to make is my own. So, I'm guaranteed the workshop where chocolate will be provided. That's something.

The other thing is that I can dream. If I were a normal con-goer and had to choose just one workshop from each time (which is hard - I need to be in a universe with several Gillians and go to them all, in fact) these are the workshops I would choose, and why:

Saturday 9 am - Liz's The Business of Writing Comics. Liz is incredibly entertaining and she knows her stuff and I so want to know more about her end of the industry.

Saturday midday - I'd say the Longsword workshop because I did it last year and had a ball even though I had flu. Except I did it last year and it's up against Jack's Dreaming workshop. Every would-be writer should do one Jack Dann workshop in their life.

Saturday 3 pm - Fiona's workshop. Both the Karens are marvellous and have great workshops, so the choice is tough, but Fiona is an e-goddess of much repute and the stuff she's going to teach is stuff that every writer should know. I so need to set up a siphon from her brain to mine. I wonder if chocolate will help....

Monday - I'm going to cheat and choose two. If I'm not scheduled elsewhere in the program, one of these workshops is where you'll find me (sing that to "Somewhere over the rainbow') - this is the session I'm most likely not to have scheduling conflicts (in my dreams, too, probably).

Felicity Pulman's one is going to be so very good. She uses my Medieval self for historical consultation, so I know just how much there is that she can teach and it's a lot. The other one is the grant-writing one. It's all a question of which skill set and knowledge base I am most in need of right now, isn't it?

To be honest, the magic workshop is the one I particularly need, because I am a theoretician on things magic - I teach medieval magic and myths but have never actually practised. There are religious reasons for this, though, and I need time to break down my biasses and sort myself out before I take myself to a workshop.

I talked to someome who went to Margi's workshop last year, and it was apparently utterly fabulous. If this one doesn't get booked out then I'll be very saddened at the lack of perspicacity of the masses. I think I talked about the reasons why I think this when I blogged last year's Conflux, way back (nearly a year ago!!) - we only understand the differences in how people see the world if we start looking more deeply. That magic workshop is going to give all the attendees some very deep insights into particular ways of seeing the world - very, very cool stuff.

Now I'm doing what I swore I wouldn't. Any moment I'll go back to the beginning of the workshop list and start yearning to be at all of them. At once.

Drabbit, i'm going to email Nicole and get my name put down for one. I just hope it doesn't conflict with a panel. Which one? (Apart from my own blogging one - me and my chocolate will be there in spades and I believe I've promised to teach bloggers how to shoot themselves in the foot in an online sense if they demonstrate a dedication to self-destruction. I'm hoping someone will turn up and say "I want to learn the shooting-in-the-foot thing.") Not saying. Do your own workshop dreaming!! The details are all here.