(no subject)

Last night late I sorted out another bit of historystuff that's been lurking in my family background. This story is about another family that married into mine and is the stuff of epic film. I don't know most of the details, but it's all about wisdom and survival and courage and it answers a question that has plagued me ever since I was a kid. We always hear about Jewish suffering and death. Why, I asked as a kid, didn't people get out? Well, people did get out. Not everyone can have ancestors who were trusting and unpolitical.

I'm going to tell a happy story today, because happy stories are important, too.

There was a town in Romania in the nineteenth century. Its Judaism was politicised (and leftish) and its culture sophisticated. The town inhabitants agreed "We don't need to live with persecution." The townsfolk sold up and spent the money on land purchases and businesses in places where they could live in freedom and safety. The whole town - or as close to it as made no difference - did this, not one family or even five families. Everyone. They didn't flee. They took no land from anyone. They didn't get government help or even support. They bought everything fair and square and rebuilt their lives from scratch, away from the hatred.

The big move happened in 1882. The townsfolk split and some went to Palestine (the Zionistically inclined) and some went to the US. Families were divided. Some joined up again and some didn't. The ones who went to what's now Israel stayed together and started a new town.

One generation, two generations later, the inhabitants of the new town (Rosh Pina - now in British mandated Palestine - Middle Eastern politics have been complicated for as long as the region has has people, I think) split into two groups again and a chunk migrated to Australia. They brought with them farming practices suited to our climate: they started the Victorian olive industry, for instance. Melbourne is where it all happened and my grandmother's sister married a child from this wise town. That child's nephew is my stepfather.

They had their 100 year reunion a while back and are up to another big gathering. They have not been victims for over a century. Australian for 75 years, American and Middle Eastern for 125. And the townsfolk still meet up and talk and know their roots.

Amazing stuff.

Avoiding Gillian at Conflux

This year you will need all your art and all your craft and all your wiles to avoid me at Conflux. You can find the whole program on the Conflux website should you want to exercise those arts and crafts and wiles to their fullest, but to make it easier, here's the summary view:

Friday 3 October
9 am Blogging workshop - where I lure innocents into blogland and feed them chocolate
7.30 pm Opening Ceremony - where I start pretending to be a good and dutiful guest (this despite having already packed the chocolate and medlar liqueur and....)

Saturday 4 October
11 am Panel: Making a living as a writer, but not necessarily as a novelist (though this is worth it for the other panellists, and I *will* have that chocolate)
3 pm Into the mouths of characters: food as a basis for worldbuilding (chocolate again, of course, but possibly also grains of paradise and other mystery objects from my food history stash - I'm thinking medlars, myself, but it depends on mood - Sharyn says that my mood will be merry - this suggests you should avoid this panel absolutely, since Sharyn might be bringing Granny and Sharyn and Granny and Gillian on a panel is not something for the fainthearted)
4 pm Mass book signing and auction (no-one's put me up for auction yet, thank goodness)
7 pm Prohibition banquet - which is going to be totally splendid. If you want to avoid me, just find out where my table is and avoid that. Don't miss the fun!!

Sunday 5 October
1 pm panel on Appropriating cultural traditions (this is going to be a doozy of a panel, I suspect - maybe just bring a fan and wave it gently at appropriate moments to delicately blank out my face and the sound of my dulcet tones?)
3 pm my speech thing (where I tell all sorts of things I shall later regret - and I have a special bag of good chocolate to ensure that everyone stays awake long enough to hear - if no-one comes I eat *all* the chocolate - pity this isn't before the massive book signing - I could have been massive all by myself just because of chocolate)
4 pm In Bad Dreams 2 event. (You may want to avoid me, but do you really want to avoid evil cakes? Or Andrew's reading? Decisions, decisions.)
5 pm Panel on the place of critical writing in the genre (I said I was on good panels this year! sorry you have to miss this if you are avoiding me - it has good people and should be a great discussion)

Monday 6 October
11 am Panel: Whose world is it? On shared worlds. (fill in your own bad joke here - I can't think of any)
4 pm Closing ceremony (where I pretend I have not done any of the things I undoubtedly will get up to and have been a very good and dutiful person)
5 pm Dead dog party (where I bet embarrassing photos will be taken)

And that's it.