(no subject)

I am - as you know - celebrating my novel by saying 'yes' to guest posts. The estimable David MacDonald asked me if I would write on research and the post just wet up: http://www.davidmcdonaldspage.com/2012/07/wednesday-writers-gillian-polack/ I wrote this the week after the malware and this was the post I was writing when the keyboard was dying and I have just read it through and discovered that these things do show in my writing. Goodness knows what my writing this week looks like!

Courses and workshops - nearly here!

It's time to remind you of where I'll be teaching during the second half of the year and when. Most of my teaching is quite early this semester, so that I can get my PhD in on time. Then I get a break to write and fill in forms, and then there's one final course...

I don't know what I'll be teaching next year, or where (since I don't know what I'm actually doing next year). This means for all you souls who keep telling me, "I've always wondered about this course," you might be wondering forever if you don't take action.

Now, in date order:

July 22 - NSW Writers' Centre, Rozelle, Grammar basics and the Perils of Punctuation, 1 day only

August 2 ANU Writing - a novel approach 8 Thursday evenings. This was very popular last semester, which is why it's up there again so soon. It only needs one more enrolment to go ahead.

August 7 ANU Medieval women 6 Tuesdays. This course is good for worldbuilding and character development as well as for those who simply love the Middle Ages. It's also a bit short on enrolments right now, so we're guaranteed a small class and being able to follow personal interests. I so want this one to happen because I will have all my new cool teaching materials for it (post-thief). Also, with all my work on the Beast this year, we should really be able to make the Middle Ages real *and* understandable (sometimes one is easier than the other).

1 September ACT Writers' Centre (Gorman House) History for Fiction Writers 1 day workshop - more about general skills than about a specific period, though this workshop has turned itself to specifics on occasion. This is my most-demanded workshop, with grammar and punctuation running second. People always leave it saying sadly, "So much work to do." this makes its popularity a mystery.

28 September, Conflux (Canberra) This is my last fling before those last weeks. It's a 2 hour workshop on History in your Fiction - basic, but grounding. Also fun.

November 1 ANU Writing your family's history My very last course for the year! 6 weeks long. By the time I teach this, my doctorate will be with the examiners, so I shall be in fine, fine fettle. This is another course students seem to like, which is why I chose it to finish the year.

And that's all for six whole months.