{"id":2222,"date":"2022-08-15T06:50:41","date_gmt":"2022-08-15T14:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/?p=2222"},"modified":"2022-08-25T06:37:18","modified_gmt":"2022-08-25T14:37:18","slug":"how-to-avoid-gillian-at-chicon-a-guide-to-prevent-perplexity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/2022\/08\/15\/how-to-avoid-gillian-at-chicon-a-guide-to-prevent-perplexity\/","title":{"rendered":"How to avoid Gillian at Chicon – a guide to prevent perplexity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Normal life is slowly (maybe) returning, for quite different grades of normal to those any of us expected. I may never be able to attend a big crowded event again. Fortunately, this means that it\u2019s very easy to avoid me at events. You can go where I cannot. You can get a cuppa while attending virtually. You can train your computer system to obliterate me while listening and enjoying all other panellists, speakers. I admit, I have not worked out how to do this latter, but there must be an app for it, somewhere.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Worldcon is coming. In Chicago, where I cannot go, due to COVID. Also on our computers, where I am definitely going and where I am on the program and\u2026 you need to know how to avoid me.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll do a new post when the final, final program is announced (this week sometime, I believe) but you need an interim post, because this coming week is not full of time for posts. <\/span><\/span>I would like to return to<\/span><\/span> warning people of my incipient presence somewhere. <\/span><\/span>How can you know how to avoid me if you don\u2019t know where I am? <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This is most of my program. I think avoiding me will be fun this time round, a computer-assisted minuet.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
The Middle Ages Weren’t Actually Bad<\/i><\/dd>\n
I agree with the title, but not with the reason for it. Of course you should avoid me. I will make waves. Grumpy waves. I\u2019m a middle-aged Medievalist, so any waves I make are grumpy and my time to make that joke is almost over, which makes me grumpier. In the context, I might even make my toilet joke. I want to say \u201cmy notorious toilet joke\u201d but that would be giving it too much credit. Find a gizmo that hides my face and reduces my voice to nothing, and enjoy the panel. The other panellists are definitely worth hearing.<\/dt>\n
<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n
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Virtual Jewish Fan Gathering<\/i><\/dd>\n
I\u2019m co-hosting a fan gathering. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m the non-American Jew in this, or the Orthodox, or\u2026<\/dt>\n
I\u2019m Modern Australian Orthodox, for those who wonder why I don\u2019t act like a Chassid. I am not Chassidic, my childhood was religious, but also full of science.<\/dt>\n
If you want to come to this gathering and make me invisible without even letting me know who you are, find someone who has read The Green Children Help Out <\/i>or The Wizardry of Jewish Women <\/i>or The Time of the Ghosts<\/i> (the novels with the highest Jewish content). <\/i>Ask them to chat with me (chat function FTW!) about my writing. I will immerse myself in the world of Jewish superheroes or the world of Jewish fairies and everyone else will have a fine time.<\/dt>\n
<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n
\n
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Virtual Table Talk \u2013 Gillian Polack <\/i><\/dd>\n
This is a simple \u201cAvoid Gillian\u201d one. Don\u2019t come. I can talk to myself about fairy tale retellings, the Middle Ages (France and England especially), enthohistory, my fiction, Jewishness in fiction, my research, cultural brickwork, my fiction-to-appear-in-print-soon, my world developing, Australia, new kitchens and more.<\/dt>\n
<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n
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Reclaiming History Through Alternate Yesterdays <\/i><\/dd>\n
My suggestion for this panel is that you reclaim it through Alternate Gillians. It\u2019s too good to miss, otherwise. How does one create an Alternate Gillian? Whenever I say something, you, twist what I say until it makes you laugh aloud. For instance, if I say, \u201cMy background for this panel lies in historiography adulterated with ethnohistory\u201d you replace the \u2018historiography\u2019; with \u2018haemophilia\u2019 and in your mind make that part of an explanation for our world where vampires died out through developing haemophilia more acutely than any human can.<\/dt>\n
Your reward is the other panellists, and I become your fiction for the day.<\/dt>\n
<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
Australian Speculative Fiction <\/i><\/dd>\n
Two perfectly excellent Australian writers (both award-winning, I believe)\u2026 and me. The approach I suggested for Reclaiming History<\/i> would also work for this. Replace \u2018Australian\u2019 with \u2018Aslanian\u2019 and turn my comments into analysis of Narnia. If I talk about lost civilisations (I am prone to this) then invent your own. If I talk about German academics and their interest in Australian SFF, then take yourself to a university website and read the blog about Australian SFF whenever I speak.<\/dt>\n
<\/dt>\n
<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n
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Virtual Reading \u2013 Gillian Polack <\/i><\/dd>\n
This is another skip-by-not-attending one. I\u2019m tossing up between reading from my Other Covenants<\/i> story and my next novel. If you skip it, you don\u2019t have to find out if my coin landed on heads, tails, or spun so strangely I had to read a bit from each.<\/dt>\n
<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n
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Fairy Tales and Folklore in Urban Fantasy <\/i><\/dd>\n
You don\u2019t want to miss this panel. One reason (just one, of the several) is Frances Hardinge. She\u2019s one of the best fairytale\/folklore using writers around, worldwide. I should know \u2013 this is one of my academic interests. And the other two panelists are also worth many detours to hear. Many. You\u2019ll have to be creative then, in avoiding me. Stick a picture of a malevolent fairy over my bit of your computer screen. Hear my voice as the garbled sound heard through a mound, with no fairy door to provide clarity. You\u2019ll be fine.<\/dt>\n
<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n
\n
The Culinary Delights of Speculative Fiction <\/i><\/dd>\n
Use your avoidance of me in this panel to create the perfect dinner party. Invite all the best people (the remainder of the panel, for instance, because they\u2019re worth meeting as well as listening to) and use all the foodstuffs I can\u2019t eat. Fish and pork, seafood and nuts. If you feel vindictive, let me know the menu and invite me to enjoy it. That\u2019ll help you get even with me for being on this otherwise-wonderful panel and making you miss some of it.<\/strong><\/dt>\n
Or you could ask me to describe the making of portable soup and use those minutes to take a refreshing nap.<\/strong><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Normal life is slowly (maybe) returning, for quite different grades of normal to those any of us expected. I may never be able to attend a big crowded event again. Fortunately, this means that it\u2019s very easy to avoid me at events. You can go where I cannot. You can get a cuppa while attending […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[568,26,567],"class_list":["post-2222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements","tag-chicon","tag-gillian-polack","tag-worldcon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2222"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2241,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2222\/revisions\/2241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}