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I'm making pottage. I do this by putting all sorts of things (stock, all the vegies that need finishing, 2 bunches of parsley, lots of herbs and spices, piles and piles of lentils) in a pot and ageing them. It's a bit salty (for it was commercial stock just this once - I had it for emergencies and decided I don't want it for anything and so it needs using) but otherwise terribly delectable. It needs to be, for once I make pottage I eat it until it's gone. I make it in large pots.

This one has purple and orange as well as green speckles, so it's a bit exotic. The background lentilish base has a nice rich tone, for the purple carrots and the pepperberries have turned it so.

I have two articles and half a story and two bibliographies still to accomplish today. One article is completely done, but I keep getting sidetracked by reading for another. I'm very lucky in my current books.

Anyhow, it's all happening...bit by bit. This is one of those days when it feels as if nothing's happening but I plug away at things and then, suddenly, it's all done. Possibly at two in the morning, but all done.

(no subject)

My pottage looks quite murky and evil, for the purple has bled into the orange and into the yellow. Murk with bits of orange and purple and green peeking through. Murk with much garlic. Very savoury murk. I must make murk again some time.

How to Avoid Gillian at Conflux (revisited)

This is my annual guide on the avoidance of Gillian at Conflux. It's been updated because Conflux has acquired a whole new room of activities. All the bad jokes, however, remain. And I have decided that Evil Gillian will make an appearance at the prophecy panel, wielding whiteboard markers. The complete program is here: http://conflux.org.au/blog/

The usual rules apply: if you want chocolate you absolutely don't want to avoid me; if you want to know where to buy specialist foodstuffs (for out-of-towners), you want to actively seek me out; if you want truly bad jokes, you shouldn't avoid me. If you need coffee late at night, I can be persuaded into making it (and maybe serving home made liqueur alongside) in return for a lift home. For all other forms of avoidance and non-avoidance, here is a simple guide gently expressed in the first person, to make it seem as if Gillian is real and not a figment of chocolate overload:

Friday 28 September 2-4 pm
A two hour workshop on History in your Fiction. There are still places available. I don't know why there are still places available, for this is the stuff I've been researching for the last squillion years and I have worked out some amazing shortcuts and easy ways for writers to understand what they're doing. Also, I don't know when I'll be teaching this subject in Canberra again. (I shall be spending summer finally doing solid work on the book on the subject, I suspect, but that is not at all relevant to Conflux and besides, won't contain my guide to evil shortcuts.) Also, people who go to this workshop get the best chocolate, for I bought some specially to celebrate that all my ideas came together so very neatly. (In other words, cutting edge research! With chocolate!)

Saturday 29 September
1-2 pm How to write prophecies. I'm chairing this and plan to do evil things to my poor, innocent panellists.
2-3 pm panel on apocalypses, chaired by Cat Sparks. I want to talk about roosters, I suspect.
4-5 pm Kaffeeklatsche - again with Cat Sparks. Poor Cat - she has to endure me!
7 pm Smiths bookshop - Ms Cellophane relaunched, along with four much better books being launched for the first time*.

Sunday 30 September
10 am possibility of readings. CSFG readings will happen, whether they include me or not is still to be decided.
3.15-4.15 Time travel panel!

And that's it. I'll also be on the CSFG table at times yet to be determined, inveigling strangers into buying many books. Or maybe many copies of the same book. Buy three copies of the same book and I give you extra chocolate.



*The four much better books are: Jodi Cleghorn – From Stage Door Shadows; Craig Cormick – Time Vandals; Tor Roxburgh – The Light Heart of Stone; Greg Mellor – Wild Chrome