News and Views

I’m just back from a great four-day retreat/critique session with a group of European writers. The group has been going for a decade, but for some reason I only found out about them this year, even though I knew some of the members. It started as a meeting place for people writing in English living in non-English-speaking countries in Europe, though by now it has expanded to include some UK-based writers. They meet twice a year for a Thursday-Monday session of critiques, writing, chatting, and general shenanigans.     I missed the first session this year, but the latest one was just impossible to refuse as it was held in the UK, and in a location half an hour drive from my house!   We had a beautiful, if somewhat draughty, Tudor building all to ourselves. I had a bedroom with four-poster-bed and murals that dated back to 1610.    We made our own dinners, with one person cooking and another assisting every evening, and the food was amazing.  ...

I did it. spent a small fortune and got my kit. Yay! So of course there were shenanigans, and showing off moves...  I'm glad to report that the drying rack survived the assault... The bib of the mask is a bib stiff, but everyone said it will "break." I really hope so, because I know that the size is right and yet it pushes up as if it were too small. And here's an incorrect sixte:   Now I have to make sure I don't put on any weight... The breeches are tight as they are... Now at least I look the part in my group. As to the skills... They all have a couple of years on me, so I guess that's a good excuse?

It's been a while since I did a general update, so here we go.   I finished the first draft of the novel at the end of August. I don't know why this one's taking so much time but by now I've resigned myself to this fact. At the end of September, I started on the first edit. It's going--you guessed it--slowly. I'm slightly over ¼ through, with everything else that's been going on, including nursing the cat who thought he could take on a car. I'm hoping to have the edit done by the ned of November, which is waaay later than I'd hoped, but it'll have to be. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯   Then, this month I've started my studies.    I've always had a passion for both physics and astronomy, but thanks to a super demanding high school teacher [1] I ended up studying my third passion, literature. But I never stopped liking science or wondering if I'd made the right choice. Recently I got back to is through taking some EdX courses, but, though they are very goo...

 Had a great fencing session today. First was a private lesson with Kate, the epee coach--a bit short because I got stuck in traffic and came in late. Still, this was more than enough for what I could take. I told Kate I wanted to try epee, and maybe join her group, if she'll have me. She was delighted, because she actually wants to have more women. And even though all the others in the group are more advanced than me, at least some are closer to my age group. Fencing against teenagers is really not my thing. I'm not quite sure what we did in during the lesson--she spent some time correcting my posture and movements, as I was too excited and messing up. Also, I don't think I learned my "sixte" correctly, or maybe it's a bit different for epee. Then I did some attacks on her wrist and chest. The wrist part was quite a change from foil! Mostly, I really like the way she teaches. She spends time explaining and seems to care if you get it,. vs just ticking a b...

 Today's fencing was rather shambolic--but it may have pushed me in a new direction.   I was on the fence (ouch for the pun!) about going today because I'm waaay behind with everything, but since after the summer break I only attended one session before the holiday and Earl Grey's accident, I decided I should make the effort. Then in the middle of the day, the head coach sent out an email about a change of venue--we normally use a school gym and occasionally have to move when the school has something on. So now we were supposed to go to a local college.    I knew this was going to cause problems because not everyone checks their email regularly, and he only gave us a few hours' notice. When I arrived at the college, the campus turned out to be really big, and not well sign-posted. It took me a while of circling before I found somebody to ask. When I finally arrived at the gym, I think I was the first adult there. The place was split up over several floors with two ra...

He's back home now and recovering, so no content warnings!   When we came home from our holidays on Sunday night (more about the trip below) I was immediately suspicious because Earl Grey's favourite food was untouched -- and he never leaves his favourite food. But he likes to roam the neighbourhood and gets bored when we are away, so I thought maybe he's just on an adventure. Then the cat-sitter said the last time his food disappeared was on Thursday…    By Monday evening I was seriously worried. After dinner, I put up notices on Animal Search and Pet Log, with his microchip number. And then we thought we heard a meow. We walked around the house, looking and calling, but found nothing. Then another meow--and that time we were sure it wasn't Major Tom, the other cat. We ran around the house, and then Jan, my husband leaned over the fence and saw Earl Grey on the ground on the other side, looking very poorly indeed.    We rushed him to emergency vet. Mos...

Back from Nine Worlds and recovering. Of course, my plans for happily doing nothing got interrupted when I saw Earl Grey chasing a pigeon. Managed to catch it in time, but the poor thing was in shock and, well, missing some feathers, so the next thing was a trip to the local Wildlife Rescue Centre. Fingers crossed for the pigeon!   Nine Worlds was interesting, if exhausting—but then most cons are for me. I spent time with two people that I share agent with, each of us with a book on submission, so it was good to chat about the process. My two panels went well, I think, and I attended some quite interesting ones. The highlight was a panel on migration is SFF with Jeannette Ng and Aliette De Bodard, and another one on language comparing English, Chinese and British Sign Language.   The full title of the panel was Layers of Meaning: the dimensional differences between English, Chinese, and Sign Language. It was a presentation by Haplocke Sixpense , exploring how the langua...

About a year ago, I moved my blog to Dream Width . I like it there because of the sense of community -- but the disadvantage is that if you're not a member, it's hard to track entries. So I gained one community but lost another. I was hoping some of the changes made would allow for cross-posting, but it's not happening--however, I've now found a way of doing it manually, without too much trouble. Yay! I've considered moving a year-worth of posts back here, but that's too much work. So instead, I'll get the three latest ones, and we'll take it from there! Here's to a new leaf for the autumn! :)