This Week in Alice

Have just returned from a packing-up-the-stuff-of-mine-that’s-at-dad’s trip to Sydney. It was extremely lovely and I caught up with a lot of nice people. Logistically it was annoying in almost every way, because it turns out the two major skills for packing boxes and moving furniture are the ability to lift things, and bending at the waist. These are two things that I’m increasingly limited in my ability to do without extreme sound effects and long recovery times.

Despite now being back in one of the most beautiful and beach-ridden places going round, this is the first photo in my phone after about 60 that are just of Laser Fraser or her cousins doing something fun. Or of my preggo belly, which I’m recording in part because it’s quite a fun experience to be a tourist in your own body and in part as a means of trying to get perspective on it (surely it can’t be as big as it seems to be - blocking out the sun and my feet, surely there aren’t two more months of this).

So the challenge at the moment is to keep my brain connected with things that are objectively interesting or related to the world, not just moving-house-logistics and domestic specifics. This feels like an urgent need partly because of the move being a symbol of me stepping-back-from-live-work for now. But because we’re not yet settled into a proper routine where I can chase writing work and put my mind to big projects, the feeling is of lost momentum, or disconnected limbo.

Staying connected to the world is harder to do because the news at the moment is extremely depressing and distressing, and my normal response to stress is to binge-read genre fiction late into the night. Sci fi, fantasy, romance, historical, mystery… great for generating more D’Ancey LaGuarde content, not great for engaging with mainstream adult discourse.

Email newsletters and Substacks on particular niche subjects are the closest I’m coming to intellectually engaging with the real world right now, so if you have any recommendations, drop them in the comments!

I’m grateful to The Gargle and The Bugle for forcing me to stay in the midst of finding out new things. Because I do love thinking about interesting things, and it’s tricky when boring things are so absorbing.

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The Google calendar with all upcoming Patreonite events is up at the linktree https://linktr.ee/alicefraser and will show you the appointments in your own time zone but for those who don’t like using Google Cal, the next virtual events are below.

Writers Meeting and Workshop

Sunday, 26 November⋅10:00am – 12:00pm (UTC +0)

Time Zone Conversion: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20231126T100000&p1=47&p2=137&p3=197&p4=179&p5=136&p6=152

Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85776485979?pwd=ZHVJZTNReTNMa3JBMXZlVE1wa0JWdz09

Sunday, 26 November⋅9:00 – 11:00pm (UTC +0)

Time Zone Conversion: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20231126T210000&p1=47&p2=137&p3=197&p4=179&p5=136&p6=152

Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81435290467?pwd=OGx3eHBDY1B0UjIxSk9lbmdBKzQyUT09

Weekly Salon

Tuesday, 28 November⋅12:30 – 01:30am (UTC +0)

Time Zone Conversion: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20231128T003000&p1=47&p2=137&p3=197&p4=179&p5=136&p6=152

Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87869184627?pwd=YlFDc2twOUhFRDhGVVVldWp2OWhkZz09