(no subject)

Today is just extraordinarily busy. So is tomorrow. The day after I'm Freeconning and the day after that, too. If I feel as if I'm running round in circles and chasing my tail now, whatever will tomorrow feel like?

What else marks today? Lots of small negatives and enough pain so I feel sorry for myself. Also, the arrival of Peter Brett's The Painted Man. I won it from the VoyagerOnline site - yay for the PurpleZone, increaser of happiness in bookreading Gillians! It gives me something really fun to look forward to, when I get a moment. Or I could read it on the bus, tomorrow. Choices, choices.

My next choice is - which three bits of work do I undertake at once, next? Maybe I'll prepare for tonight's class. We will be drinking hypocras and studying Inquisitorial Technique. Also looking at how hero tales can turn evil and kill people.

Gratuitous advertisement!!

If you wanted to book my not-for-children workshop, you might want to do it rather soon. It's not so far away, now...

THE GORY DETAILS (book here:
Love and Sex in the Middle Ages

1.30 - 5.30pm on Saturday 22 November (Not suitable for children)

There are some words that people use when they think about love and sex in the Middle Ages: courtly love, chastity, hellfire. The reality is a lot more complicated than these few words and far more interesting. This session will open up new and interesting storylines for romance writers, historical fiction writers and maybe even speculative fiction writers. We will talk about what love might actually mean to someone in medieval France or England, what sexual practices were condoned and what sexual practices were condemned (and why). Why was it easier to be Jewish than Christian? We will look at romance and religion and what happens when the marriage between them turns foul. If there’s time we might also examine medieval medicine and what it had to say about women's bodies, reproduction, orgasm and other matters of enduring interest.

(no subject)

Class was so very wonderful tonight. We drank hypocras and ate sugared almonds and talked about how certain narratives are formed and used by society. This is one of those groups of students who are hungry to understand, not just to know. May everyone who teaches be so fortunate!

Also, there might well be a book cover on view at the Sydney Freecon. A rather nice one, at that. Right now I'm tempted to join the Andrew McKiernan fanclub. I like it when artists understand the strange workings of my warped brain.