Miscellaneous
1. Why, oh, why, oh, why do writers' festivals bring out the lunatics in such droves?
This is my fourth Sydney Writers' Festival. Since the first one I attended, the organisers have made noticeable attempts to improve the quality of the Q&A at the end of each session, requesting that people please not make statements and get to the point of their questions quickly. So what happens? Last year we had the seriously scary bloke* who sat behind me and muttered throughout the session and then threw incoherent accusations at two poor writers for having the temerity to write historical fiction set during World War II. The other one who sticks in my mind was the guy who went on and on and on about how he wasn't afraid to talk about death, unlike everyone else (the session was on writing about death and the silence associated with death), until people were begging him to sit down. I met him later in the queue; he looked at the books I was waiting to buy and asked, "Do you have a sick father?" What business was it of his?!
Yesterday, at the one session I attended, the culprit was a middle-aged, well-spoken woman who proclaimed that she was a dowser, and after burbling at length about Australia's water problem, demanded to know what was wrong with the medical profession, because "my first doctor didn't want to know about my talent, so I went to another doctor, and she didn't want to know, and I saw a psychiatrist, and he didn't want to know..." at which point, the moderator shut her up.
Seriously, what makes these people think anyone is interested in what they have to say?
The high point of the day, however, was going to a late poetry reading at a wine bar, which was full of middle-aged people who had clearly been drinking wine on and off all day (I notice there's a lot of wine flowing during the festival). They all looked after me very well while I waited for the boyfriend to turn up. :D
*Honestly, I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd pulled out a gun. The fear in the room was palpable when he stood up.
2. Read Restless by William Boyd. Apparently he's quite a respected writer? It was a crap book, though. Enjoyable, but clichéd and crap.
3. HTML advice: can anyone tell me if there's a way of doing footnotes in LJ posts so that you can mouse over the link and read the footnote?
4. Yes, this does mean that my Pratchett fic is nearly ready to post.
5. Have had three pots of chai this morning and am slightly jittery from caffeine and lack of sleep. Which may explain the jitteriness of this post.
6. I am falling a little in love with Dreamwidth. It's pretty! I love the icons. I love how shiny it is. I love the "new start" feeling.
7. I created a Harry/Ginny community on Dreamwidth!
harry_ginny_centric. It's intended to function a little like harry_and_ginny does on LJ, as a repository for fic, art, meta, icons or anything else to do with the pairing that people feel like posting. There's loads going on with H/G on LJ at present, so I don't want to step on anyone's toes - but I did want to provide people on Dreamwidth with a place to go for their H/G fix. So if you like H/G and you're on DW, come and find us! (And if anyone has shiny layout skills or a handy H/G header, I'd love to hear from you.)
8. I am considering getting a new default icon for my Dreamwidth account. This makes me wibble a bit, because I've had Hufflepuff Molesworth for about five years - but I think it's time for a change. I have no idea what to go for, though! It's been so easy having Molesworth there all these years.
This is my fourth Sydney Writers' Festival. Since the first one I attended, the organisers have made noticeable attempts to improve the quality of the Q&A at the end of each session, requesting that people please not make statements and get to the point of their questions quickly. So what happens? Last year we had the seriously scary bloke* who sat behind me and muttered throughout the session and then threw incoherent accusations at two poor writers for having the temerity to write historical fiction set during World War II. The other one who sticks in my mind was the guy who went on and on and on about how he wasn't afraid to talk about death, unlike everyone else (the session was on writing about death and the silence associated with death), until people were begging him to sit down. I met him later in the queue; he looked at the books I was waiting to buy and asked, "Do you have a sick father?" What business was it of his?!
Yesterday, at the one session I attended, the culprit was a middle-aged, well-spoken woman who proclaimed that she was a dowser, and after burbling at length about Australia's water problem, demanded to know what was wrong with the medical profession, because "my first doctor didn't want to know about my talent, so I went to another doctor, and she didn't want to know, and I saw a psychiatrist, and he didn't want to know..." at which point, the moderator shut her up.
Seriously, what makes these people think anyone is interested in what they have to say?
The high point of the day, however, was going to a late poetry reading at a wine bar, which was full of middle-aged people who had clearly been drinking wine on and off all day (I notice there's a lot of wine flowing during the festival). They all looked after me very well while I waited for the boyfriend to turn up. :D
*Honestly, I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd pulled out a gun. The fear in the room was palpable when he stood up.
2. Read Restless by William Boyd. Apparently he's quite a respected writer? It was a crap book, though. Enjoyable, but clichéd and crap.
3. HTML advice: can anyone tell me if there's a way of doing footnotes in LJ posts so that you can mouse over the link and read the footnote?
4. Yes, this does mean that my Pratchett fic is nearly ready to post.
5. Have had three pots of chai this morning and am slightly jittery from caffeine and lack of sleep. Which may explain the jitteriness of this post.
6. I am falling a little in love with Dreamwidth. It's pretty! I love the icons. I love how shiny it is. I love the "new start" feeling.
7. I created a Harry/Ginny community on Dreamwidth!
harry_ginny_centric. It's intended to function a little like harry_and_ginny does on LJ, as a repository for fic, art, meta, icons or anything else to do with the pairing that people feel like posting. There's loads going on with H/G on LJ at present, so I don't want to step on anyone's toes - but I did want to provide people on Dreamwidth with a place to go for their H/G fix. So if you like H/G and you're on DW, come and find us! (And if anyone has shiny layout skills or a handy H/G header, I'd love to hear from you.)
8. I am considering getting a new default icon for my Dreamwidth account. This makes me wibble a bit, because I've had Hufflepuff Molesworth for about five years - but I think it's time for a change. I have no idea what to go for, though! It's been so easy having Molesworth there all these years.