Among Amid While

Useful recipes

2009-12-06T21:04:00.002+11:00

Included with a piece of Viagra spam:

TO MAKE CLEAR GELLY OF BRAN Take two pound of the broadest open Bran of the best Wheat, and put it to infuse in a Gallon of Water, during two or three days, that the water may soak into the pure flower, that sticks to the bran. Then boil it three or four walms, and presently take it from the fire, and strain it through some fine strainer. A milky substance will come out, which let stand to settle about half a day. Pour off the clear water, that swimmeth over the starch or flomery, that is in the bottom (which is very good for Pap, &c.) and boil it up to a gelly, as you do Harts-horn gelly or the like, and season it to your taste. TO BAKE VENISON Boil the bones (well broken) and remaining flesh of the Venison, from whence the meat of the Pasty is cut, in the Liquor, wherein Capons and Veal, or Mutton have been boiled, so to make very strong broth of them. The bones must be broken, that you may have the Marrow of them in the Liquor; and they must stew a long time (covering the pot close:) that you may make the broth as strong as you can; and if you put some gravy of Mutton or Veal to it, it will be the better.

I like 'Pour off the clear water, that swimmeth over the starch or flomery'. Also, the assumption that I'm always whipping up a batch of Harts-horn gelly when I've a few minutes to spare.

And then I wondered, what are 'walms'? And Practically Edible, the Web's Biggest Food Encyclopedia tells me that it's a 'surge upwards of boiling water'. 'Cooking instructions might also tell you to bring the water to a boil till 'it boil high with great walms in the middle of the Kettle'.

Well, I never.

Dani made me do it

2009-12-04T07:14:00.002+11:00

'You haven't updated your blog since the 27TH OF NOVEMBER!' she said. Also, she was cranky that I hadn't mentioned her by name. So here I am, salving my conscience on two counts.

Today I am writing selkies (Dani knows about the selkies—she read about them back in, when was it, Dani? February? Early, anyway.), specifically, the first third of the novel, which is the witch Messkeletha's story—and actually, she gets the best deal out of the whole selkie matter, but of course she can't get away without some form of misery and lovelornness, so, you know, get ready to feel her pain, people.

The second section will be told by Daniel Mallett's father, and that will be pretty much utterly miserable, oh my goodness yes. :) That's the biggest job ahead of me; the third section (the X⁶ novella) only needs a bit of tweaking by comparison.

So there you are, updated. There are other things, such as Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan translations of Tender Morsels, and next year's workshops here in Sydney and in Byron Bay, and sons flying off to Amerikee, or staying home and turning 17(!), and OMG Christmas approaching (beachside holiday, nice and low-key), and working 3 days a week which is the perfect amount, and the crazy weather (today is, um, brightly autumnal). Okay, now you're updated.

Back to Rollrock Island. Oh, I think I forgot to tell you, Dani—it's now called The Brides of Rollrock Island. This is because Meg Rosoff told me that her publisher told her that books with Bride in the title sell squillions more than books without. So from now on all my books will have Bride in the title. Good idea, hey?

Tender Morsels is on the UKLA longlist

2009-11-27T15:48:00.002+11:00

Along with a swag of wonderful books—go over here and have a look.

That's the UK Literacy Association, if you were wondering.

The UKLA Children’s Book Award is a national award conferred by education professionals and it is held in high esteem by teachers, who regard the shortlist [announced in March next year] as a reliable indicator of the best books of the year for inclusion in class and school collections.

The announcement of the UKLA Children’s Book Award 2010 will be made at the UKLA International Conference in Winchester July 8th 2010.

It's listed in the age 12–16 section. I think it would be very interesting if it made the shortlist. :)

Some people like to be challenged

2009-11-21T19:39:00.002+11:00

And Biblioaddict is one. She's just acquired 7 new books, and one of them is

Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan. I’ve wanted to read this book for so long that it’s almost impossible to believe that I actually finally have a copy. ... I can’t wait to read this, if only to satisfy my curiosity about my reaction to this book. The subject matter in Tender Morsels isn’t usually my cup of tea, but I’m excited to be challenged by this book. I think it’s always good to make sure I’m challenging myself on a regular basis. How else do I learn when my tastes have changed? How else do I learn that sometimes I don’t know my reading taste as well as I thought I did?

YALSA Best Books list

2009-11-18T18:22:00.002+11:00

Tender Morsels didn't make the Top Ten, but it did make the main list.

(via Perry at Matilda)

About women's work, particularly their writing work

2009-11-12T10:30:00.005+11:00

Here. Yes.

Three other depressing stories: Sheng Keyi's story (trans. Eric Abrahamsen) 'An Inexperienced World' in the latest HEAT (the beginning of which is available, Jonathan points out in the comments, online—thanks, Jonathan!). Something depressing about this being the first item in the issue, but mainly it's the story itself. It's about a women 'well past thirty and possessed of a certain experience of life', which suggests to me that the author might well be under thirty ('born in the 1970s' says an online bio) or just on the cusp of it. I seem to have recently read quite a lot of stories by young writers, male and female - but it's particularly distressing from young women - that are essentially about feelings of revulsion for the state of middle age, and a particular contempt for middle-aged women. This one seems to think that middle age is all about mourning for lost youth, lost vitality, lost sexual attractiveness, that those losses sit centre stage in the woman's mind and render her almost incapable of interacting with 'normal' (generally younger, or male) people. It's like those scenes in Hollywood movies that are young studio executives' imaginings of how established couples relate: they're bored solid with each other, and the woman is pathetic because she's not the young beauty her husband married, and any affectionate behaviour he can demonstrate towards her is to be regarded as a great kindness of his in the face of his own loss. That Julie Christie/Alzheimer's movie seemed to stink of that. Away From Her. Anyway, read the 'An Inexperienced World' and tell me what you think.

I woke up at 2.30 am last night and couldn't get back to sleep, so I took my book light and 10 Short Stories you MUST Read and read on the couch for a while. Robert Drewe and Peter Temple. Two stories about middle-aged men behaving poorly, which was depressing enough in itself - I suspect they might have been meant to be mordantly funny - but the casual way that the women were presented, either as trophies or viragos... Did anyone else get the irrits at this?

Yairs, should stop now. The Harriet Evans article is via @tansyrr.

Sydneysiders, particularly of the Inner West!

2009-11-11T21:50:00.002+11:00

Tomorrow night (Thursday, that is) at Berkelouw's Books in Norton Street, Leichhardt, Richard Harland will be doing the honours and launching the Keith Stevenson-edited novella collection X⁶, from Coeur de Lion. ALL SIX of the authors AND the Editor Himself will be there, so if you want a fully signed copy of X⁶, tomorrow night's the night to get it.

The shenanigans start at around 7pm. Some of us will read, some of us will natter, and some will just stand about looking enigmatic. God knows what Richard will do—possibly fouettés or backflips, or a little mime.

It's almost as if I was there!

2009-11-10T19:57:00.002+11:00

Hey, look here! It's me giving my Printz Honor speech, back in July! So weird to watch yourself like this. Daniel Kraus, author of a splendid YA novel, The Monster Variations, filmed it.

I'm rather pleased...

2009-11-08T21:01:00.002+11:00

...to be no. 79 on the list of Top 50 Australian Blogs for Writers. It's nice to be anywhere on that list, eh.

Long and thoughtful TM review

2009-11-07T18:13:00.002+11:00

Over here.

No, no, NaNo

2009-11-05T19:03:00.003+11:00

Everyone in the world seems to be doing NaNoWriMo this year, and I'm enjoying the blog posts by participants and by sage advisors like Maureen Johnson and Justine Larbalestier.

I'm not nano-ing, though. If NaNoWriMo had been August–September, I would have, but now I've got (count them!) 70,000 words of selkie goodness that require more in the way of poking, prodding, resculpting and spakfilling than they do whole extra arms of plot development.

Which is what I've spent today doing. I wrote maybe 5 pages, but I covered some tens of pages of manuscript with tiny-tiny green corrections as well. And I cut out chunks, and added chunks. And I wrote myself notes, including notes about what to write myself notes about, to work out various questions that might turn into interesting pieces of story. It's not wordcount, but it's writing. It wasn't 'fun', but it was totally absorbing. I'm looking forward to the rest of November.

The Russian translation of 'mudwife'

2009-11-04T19:12:00.002+11:00

The Russian translator of Tender Morsels and I have been in conference—hi, Nadia! She wanted to know what a mudwife is:

First I looked into every dictionary possible and searched the web all over, but then read half a dozen interviews with you as well as a number of articles on TM and other pieces ("The Goosle", in particular) and Muddy Annie's profile became quite clear. Still, I would like you to clarify this word a bit more. Could you please explain what's the difference between a mudwife and an ordinary witch? What is special about her? Must a mudwitch necessarily be old and muddy/dirty and her deeds (mudwifery) considered by folks dirty as well? I'm fussing over this term just for the purpose of right choice of word from the variety of Russian synonyms (witches are all-time favorites in the Russian folklore, you know :) )

My answer:

The idea of the mudwife is a mispronunciation/corruption of 'midwife', as the two occupations have often been very closely aligned. Mudwives don't have to be muddy, no, but people are afraid of their power, and tend to be contemptuous of them when they're not actually making use of their powers (e.g. calling on them to help with a birth or a love affair), so unless they have strong personalities, luck and/or good training, like Miss Dance, they are likely to be poor, outcast and likely none too clean! The poorer witches also smell strange, from the herbs and substances they deal in, and the general lack of laundering.

Just in case anyone else was wondering.

NZ capers to come

2009-11-04T18:56:00.004+11:00

And then, upcoming in March, there's this! Joan London and Gil Adamson and I will be attending the New Zealand Post Writers and Readers Week, along with 19 international and 3 New Zealand writers, including, you know, Neil and Si and Richard and all my mates. We will wow Wellington.

How Boofle!

2009-11-04T18:45:00.004+11:00

Then, this! Which arrived yesterday - 2 copies. I don't know what made me think it would be trade-paperback size. It's one of those neat small format hardbacks. A really nice production, with my 'A Dark Red Love-Knot' buried in the middle of it. Oh dear oh dear oh dear, not a happy story.

Mine Howie!

2009-11-04T18:43:00.002+11:00

Lots to blog - first, this, courtesy of that documentrix extraordinaire, Cat Sparks.

Guardian article on the WFA win

2009-11-04T05:58:00.004+11:00

Here's a lot of what I typed in bed last night, written up by Alison Flood and headed 'Controversial teenage novel wins World Fantasy award':

Lanagan ... hit out at the articles claiming young adults are unable to handle the themes of her book. "There's this assumption that all children have the luxury of a childhood where their innocence is always respected and their main occupation is pleasant play – at the age of 18, or 21, they are then thrust into the real world and shown its uglier side, but not before," she said. "How on earth do people imagine we equip children for life, if we never show them the sorts of issues other people encounter, if we never talk through with them how they might deal with difficulty, or violence, or unexpected shocks and surprises?"

Lanagan also pointed to the current "fashion for vampires and all things gothic", which she said showed the appetite for "dark themes, sinister characters, and horrific events against which the kinder and sweeter aspects of human nature, when they do show, can shine even more brightly".

I'm on a nice high horse there, aren't I?

Not everybody loves your books, Margo.

2009-11-03T05:57:00.002+11:00

Google Alerts alerted me to this spectacularly bad review on Goodreads, and I had to show you:

I read black juice by Margo Lanagan, the book was kind of confusing with the different pronunciation of the words throughout the whole book. I would recommend this book to people who like a mix of medieval themes and modern themes. This book gets darker as it goes a long a bit more confusing. I didn’t really like this book much; I don’t like books like this. I didn’t have a favorite or least favorite character, I never really understand it, and just didn’t care about them. Not a single part of the book captivated my attention, this book made me feel absolutely nothing and I disliked everything about it. I don’t have a favorite line, and nothing kept me reading it except that it’s a project. I really don’t know why the author would ever right something as horrid as this book, this is the single WORST book I have ever read. There’s just stories, and they didn’t really make an ending all together. I pray to god that this book will never be made into a movie, and if it does get made into a movie it doesn’t deserve actors and should just take hobo’s off the side of the street if they’re lucky enough to have them to act.

I like the way he goes from vague dislike to really putting the boot in. A nicely constructed review, I think. :)

Tender Morsels ties for Best Novel in World Fantasy Awards

2009-11-02T10:00:00.002+11:00

with Jeff Ford's The Shadow Year. You can see Scott Edelman's pic of Garth Nix (far right) holding my statuette, here. Oh, there are a few other winners and representers there, too, I guess. :)

Curses! I have not ripped random_alex's heart out through her chest wall!

2009-11-02T06:43:00.003+11:00

From here:

Finally, let me make a frighteningly big admission: I am not usually a huge fan of Margo Lanagan's work. It's not that I dislike her writing; on the contrary, I think she is hugely talented author. For me, though, her stories tend to just be too dark to enjoy; and the very fact that she writes so beautifully, I think, makes it all the more distressing to read. Also in X⁶, however, is Lanagan's "Sea-Hearts." This story captivated me. It seemed weird, after reading it, that few novellas capitalise on the form in a way that seems most suited: by telling a story that takes place over a long period of time. Lanagan does that, and it surprised me a few times when the story kept going - but it made sense every time, and every addition to the story developed it more and more richly. Fleshing out, as it were, the old story of the selkie wife, it examines relationships in all their complexities. Finally, a Lanagan story that - while still being dark and murky - doesn't make me want to cry at the rottenness of the world!

*vows to do a proper three-hanky job next time*

Recommended to me today

2009-10-27T13:41:00.003+11:00

Maria V. Snyder's trilogy, or at least the start of it. The librarian who told me about it said she took the first volume home, and was tempted to break into the library over the weekend to get hold of volume 2.

Repeat Tweet + Shaun Tan TM YA cover

2009-10-21T18:11:00.003+11:00

RT: @nickearls: Brilliant Shaun Tan bookcover art being auctioned to benefit @warchildaust. Please RT widely. http://tinyurl.com/ygxbyrw

Oh, but it's not this brilliant piece of Shaun Tan bookcover art (she purrs):

This edition is coming out, in Australia, in February next year, from Allen & Unwin.

Two good posts over at Meanjin

2009-10-21T06:57:00.002+11:00

All about ... writing and work. Good comments, too.

Chuckle

2009-10-14T07:45:00.002+11:00

I've just seen the draft cover of the Vintage paperback edition of Tender Morsels. It's basically the same design as the Cape hardback (silhouetted bear flanked by girls, crows scattered about, etc.) but in a different colour scheme. Below the title are splashed the words 'A WORK OF GENIUS'—Sunday Telegraph.

'Sea-Hearts' first review

2009-10-12T21:16:00.004+11:00

Tansy says:

'Sea-Hearts', Margo Lanagan, X⁶—a dark and twisty take on the legend of the selkie wife. In this novella Lanagan builds up a fogged, muddy and claustrophobic world of seal-women, their husbands and their sons, all part of a tightly closed island community. Through her usual tangled prose and deeply hidden emotion, Lanagan presents a simply glorious fantasy that transcends rather than merely replicating the story's mythic roots. Those who loved Tender Morsels will be drawn to this story, which is less difficult to stomach but contains many similar themes.

Fogged, muddy and claustrophobic—yes! *punches the air*

Monday morning,

2009-10-12T08:12:00.002+11:00

which, with a 3 day week, doesn't have nearly the effect on the spirits that a Monday of a 5 day week does.

Quite a weekend. We well and truly launched Deb's A Book of Endings (Cat Sparks enpictured it) on Saturday afternoon, then celebrated all evening.

Then, on Sunday, hardly hungover at all, I went off to the NSW Writer's Centre and leapt in the dark with my 16 workshoppees, who were very diligent. There is nothing quite like the rustling silence of 16 people scrapbooking towards their stories. I managed to keep them occupied for the full six hours (well, I let them have some lunch), and it went quickly for me and for at least some of them, so I think we all got into it.

And, apart from one school gig at the end of October, that's pretty much it for the public-writering for the year - no big things until Wellington next March. So I can relax a bit. Possibly, you know...write something. Odd thought.