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Question time!
Sep. 21st, 2010 11:44 amOne of the side effects of AussieCon is that I'm getting a slew of questions. Not on the usual subjects either. It's been interesting. It gets particularly interesting when people I know (sometimes well, sometimes less well) start a conversation with "Tell me..." I wonder if I need to change my name to Tellme so that the form of the question can itself be the greeting.
So, first, a small suggestion. If you* start your question with "Hi, Gillian. Nice to see you," it will give me time to get my head around the fact that you're there, in front of me, which means I can actually hear the question when you pose it. You don't need to ask how my mother is or how I'm doing, but it really, really helps if you give my brain time to accustom itself to your presence.
Second, it's about time I had a question thread.
This started off as a way for writers to get handy data for their fiction, but RPGers and cooks and other bods have also asked questions in the past and are entirely welcome. If I can't answer it or won't answer it (if the question's not something I am comfortable with, for instance) I'll let you know. If it's too big a question I'll try to send you somewhere you can find an answer. Silly questions are perfectly fine!
I perhaps should explain (for new readers) why anyone would want to ask me a question. The first and most obvious reason is because they want to see how I'll react (personal questions, silly questions - both get reactions). Mostly, though, it's because the historian side of me knows stuff that might be useful to other people. I'm best on England and France in the Middle Ages, though my knowledge of other periods and places (19th century Australia, 18th century England and France) can be handy. I'm very much an English/French language historian, I'm afraid. I'm also OK on Jewish history. And food history. In fact, Jewish anything and food anything.
I'm not a font of universal knowledge. Cultural stuff is easier than names and dates. Political history is not my meat and drink - food history, however, is very much my meat and drink.
If I can't give you a quick answer, I'll try to point you in the right direction, but I won't do significant amounts of research. I got totally stumped today, for instance, when a person wanting a precise answer on an 11th century question didn't have any sources and I wasn't willing to do 8 months research to establish them myself. That's the bottom line. Also, if you want big answers, you really want my professional self, because I'm time-poor and don't have much money, either. Email if you need my professional self. She's up to her neck in other peoples' manuscripts at the moment, but email anyway.
Question threads are allowed to go in whatever direction they like (to be honest, that's true of answers to all my posts, but I thought it was a good idea to spell it out) and I am *not* going to answer "How long is a piece of string?" Been there and done that**.
You don't have to know me, have met me, like me, have ever read my blog before to ask questions.
This post is open to new questions until Sunday. It's also open to old questions until Sunday.
*By 'you' I mean seven people over the last two weeks, not you-reading-this-blogpost. Unless, of course, you-reading-this-blogpost asked me questions without warning over the last two weeks. What this means is that two of you are 'you' in this context.
**I get bored easily.
So, first, a small suggestion. If you* start your question with "Hi, Gillian. Nice to see you," it will give me time to get my head around the fact that you're there, in front of me, which means I can actually hear the question when you pose it. You don't need to ask how my mother is or how I'm doing, but it really, really helps if you give my brain time to accustom itself to your presence.
Second, it's about time I had a question thread.
This started off as a way for writers to get handy data for their fiction, but RPGers and cooks and other bods have also asked questions in the past and are entirely welcome. If I can't answer it or won't answer it (if the question's not something I am comfortable with, for instance) I'll let you know. If it's too big a question I'll try to send you somewhere you can find an answer. Silly questions are perfectly fine!
I perhaps should explain (for new readers) why anyone would want to ask me a question. The first and most obvious reason is because they want to see how I'll react (personal questions, silly questions - both get reactions). Mostly, though, it's because the historian side of me knows stuff that might be useful to other people. I'm best on England and France in the Middle Ages, though my knowledge of other periods and places (19th century Australia, 18th century England and France) can be handy. I'm very much an English/French language historian, I'm afraid. I'm also OK on Jewish history. And food history. In fact, Jewish anything and food anything.
I'm not a font of universal knowledge. Cultural stuff is easier than names and dates. Political history is not my meat and drink - food history, however, is very much my meat and drink.
If I can't give you a quick answer, I'll try to point you in the right direction, but I won't do significant amounts of research. I got totally stumped today, for instance, when a person wanting a precise answer on an 11th century question didn't have any sources and I wasn't willing to do 8 months research to establish them myself. That's the bottom line. Also, if you want big answers, you really want my professional self, because I'm time-poor and don't have much money, either. Email if you need my professional self. She's up to her neck in other peoples' manuscripts at the moment, but email anyway.
Question threads are allowed to go in whatever direction they like (to be honest, that's true of answers to all my posts, but I thought it was a good idea to spell it out) and I am *not* going to answer "How long is a piece of string?" Been there and done that**.
You don't have to know me, have met me, like me, have ever read my blog before to ask questions.
This post is open to new questions until Sunday. It's also open to old questions until Sunday.
*By 'you' I mean seven people over the last two weeks, not you-reading-this-blogpost. Unless, of course, you-reading-this-blogpost asked me questions without warning over the last two weeks. What this means is that two of you are 'you' in this context.
**I get bored easily.