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My life is all light and shade today. Food-History-the-blog can be read, but I can't post and I will have to wave goodbye to it forever. 451 Press is closing down all their blogs. I can't do a thing right now, but I can't see myself *not* blogging about history, so I shall start a new blog up somewhere else. Maybe make it a bit more general, but food will still be important. I'm thinking of taking all the best posts from my old blog, too, so they're in one place and easier to find. It's not something I can do immediately, though. Watch this space.
Not much teaching is happening right now. People just aren't enrolling. I guess not even the Middle Ages can tempt people out in the dark when it's below zero.
And that's it for unhappy news. Really. I got to see two nieces today (hello two nieces!) and to catch up with a ton of friends at Continuum.
I've also done Important Business. Kathleen Jennings - who some of you will know as the talented artist who did the recent Greer Gilman cover and some of you will know as the talented artist who did illustrations for Masques - is designing me a bookplate. This is for when someone would really like a book of mine signed, but is too far from me to achieve this. I'll sign a bookplate and send it. It's a custom tried and true, but my bookplates will be special. Kathleen will have designed them! You might have to buy my next book just so that you can email me and ask for a bookplate. She does fabulous work: I can't wait to see what she creates.
Continuum this year is very, very friendly. The committee is lovely (yes, they were let out of jail) and everything is being run smoothly.
Who have I said 'hi' to so far? Kathleen (obviously, since Kathleen is now designing me my dream bookplate), Aimee-who-I-lost-in-Canberra, Ross Temple, Jack Dann (who has to put up with me on a panel - I shall attempt to be respectful, at least at first), Miriam-my-niece, Tam-of-the-hyphenated-surname, Sue Ann Barber (whose hair I envy), Emma Wearmouth, Jane Routley, Wendy Dunn (and son), Bruce Gillespie (who has a multitude of fine fanzines about to emerge), Bill Wright, Alisa Krasnostein (very much in passing), Sean Williams (not quite as much in passing), Rob Hood, Cat Sparks, Bill Congreve (masquerading as Mirrordanse Press), Richard and Aileen Harland (I still love Richard's new book - if you like Joan Aiken or steampunk then it's a must-read), the Binns' (I'm apparently in pictures somewhere - this is a worry), Paul Poulton, Lewis Morley and Marilyn Pride, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (Jack introduced me to her as "Quinn Yarbro" and addressed her as Quinn and I keep thinking that he's counting to five in some arcane manner - also, she's not nearly as intimidating as I feared), Garth Nix (I reminded him that it was a convention and that I was honour-bound to trip him up and he suggested that I let him stage it instead of doing it for real this time) and a whole bunch of others who will have to wait because I've Just Run Out of Steam. Just Run Out of Steam is my next best friend and his surname is really Steampunk.
I didn't get to any panels tonight, since it's a long tram ride to Mum's and I really don't like superlatenight travel alone. I did, however get to the Chronos awards. I was especially happy when Jack and the Dreaming Again anthology folks got an award, and so did Bruce Gillespie, for Steam Engine time. Jason, I have had Jack's Chronos statuette in my hot little hands and said 'hi' to it on your story's behalf.
I've finally seen my first "Not an author" t-shirt (on Bill). The other day I saw my first "Buffy staked Edward" t-shirt (Mik owns it). So now I just have to see a "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." t-shirt and I shall have the trifecta.
I think I shall retire to bed with Mr Just Run of Steam and sleep it off. It's a lovely Con and I'm sending a special "I'm here and you're not" to Aussie friends who went to Worldcon and couldn't get back in time. I might do a real report tomorrow. Or I might not.
PS I'm reading tomorrow from both The Art of Effective Dreaming and Life through Cellophane. Mum gave me very strange looks when I tested the extracts on her. It's going to be interesting.
Not much teaching is happening right now. People just aren't enrolling. I guess not even the Middle Ages can tempt people out in the dark when it's below zero.
And that's it for unhappy news. Really. I got to see two nieces today (hello two nieces!) and to catch up with a ton of friends at Continuum.
I've also done Important Business. Kathleen Jennings - who some of you will know as the talented artist who did the recent Greer Gilman cover and some of you will know as the talented artist who did illustrations for Masques - is designing me a bookplate. This is for when someone would really like a book of mine signed, but is too far from me to achieve this. I'll sign a bookplate and send it. It's a custom tried and true, but my bookplates will be special. Kathleen will have designed them! You might have to buy my next book just so that you can email me and ask for a bookplate. She does fabulous work: I can't wait to see what she creates.
Continuum this year is very, very friendly. The committee is lovely (yes, they were let out of jail) and everything is being run smoothly.
Who have I said 'hi' to so far? Kathleen (obviously, since Kathleen is now designing me my dream bookplate), Aimee-who-I-lost-in-Canberra, Ross Temple, Jack Dann (who has to put up with me on a panel - I shall attempt to be respectful, at least at first), Miriam-my-niece, Tam-of-the-hyphenated-surname, Sue Ann Barber (whose hair I envy), Emma Wearmouth, Jane Routley, Wendy Dunn (and son), Bruce Gillespie (who has a multitude of fine fanzines about to emerge), Bill Wright, Alisa Krasnostein (very much in passing), Sean Williams (not quite as much in passing), Rob Hood, Cat Sparks, Bill Congreve (masquerading as Mirrordanse Press), Richard and Aileen Harland (I still love Richard's new book - if you like Joan Aiken or steampunk then it's a must-read), the Binns' (I'm apparently in pictures somewhere - this is a worry), Paul Poulton, Lewis Morley and Marilyn Pride, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (Jack introduced me to her as "Quinn Yarbro" and addressed her as Quinn and I keep thinking that he's counting to five in some arcane manner - also, she's not nearly as intimidating as I feared), Garth Nix (I reminded him that it was a convention and that I was honour-bound to trip him up and he suggested that I let him stage it instead of doing it for real this time) and a whole bunch of others who will have to wait because I've Just Run Out of Steam. Just Run Out of Steam is my next best friend and his surname is really Steampunk.
I didn't get to any panels tonight, since it's a long tram ride to Mum's and I really don't like superlatenight travel alone. I did, however get to the Chronos awards. I was especially happy when Jack and the Dreaming Again anthology folks got an award, and so did Bruce Gillespie, for Steam Engine time. Jason, I have had Jack's Chronos statuette in my hot little hands and said 'hi' to it on your story's behalf.
I've finally seen my first "Not an author" t-shirt (on Bill). The other day I saw my first "Buffy staked Edward" t-shirt (Mik owns it). So now I just have to see a "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." t-shirt and I shall have the trifecta.
I think I shall retire to bed with Mr Just Run of Steam and sleep it off. It's a lovely Con and I'm sending a special "I'm here and you're not" to Aussie friends who went to Worldcon and couldn't get back in time. I might do a real report tomorrow. Or I might not.
PS I'm reading tomorrow from both The Art of Effective Dreaming and Life through Cellophane. Mum gave me very strange looks when I tested the extracts on her. It's going to be interesting.