My First Ambulance Ride & and other adventures in ill-health
PLUS Beautiful young students keeping my hope alive
Hello book lovers and friends!
Sorry for the radio silence for the last couple of months; I’ve been wading through a prolonged period of feeling very much under the weather and everything non-essential has fallen by the wayside.
My adventures with ill-health started with what appeared to be a possible heart attack, but after a long night in emergency, turned out to be my gall-bladder acting out. Phew! Not life threatening, but also, oh my god, the pain was unimaginable. I felt like someone had tied a piece of washing -line around my chest and was trying to cut me in half by pulling it as tight as they could. The strongest of opiates barely took the edge off. The only thing I could compare it to was childbirth, but at least when you’re in labour (you think) you’re getting a prize for your efforts. I felt the most enormous gratitude to the ambos, doctors, nurses and orderlies who managed to make me feel safe in a situation where I was in the most immense discomfort. Our health system is not perfect, and definitely needs more funding, but also…our health system is amazing.
Next, I got para-influenza, which is NOT influenza; it is an influenza-like virus. Other than the swine flu, (during which for ten days I felt like my brain had been beaten with a meat cleaver) no virus has ever gripped me so tight and for so long. I was properly ill for three weeks, and then even when i was ‘better’ I could barely function. No amount of sleep could replenish my energy and the brain fog was…what was I saying?
BUT because I am a casual academic, and don’t receive sick pay, I had to keep marking essays and delivering lectures and answering emails because if I didn’t do those things I would end up living in my car (and I only have a hatchback). So, as a result of continuing to push my poor depleted body when I should have been lying down watching Star Trek Next Generation (yes! I am a Trekkie now!), I developed symptoms that were so weird and scary my friend thought I was having a stroke, so it was back to emergency for me, but luckily, another false alarm: it was only a horrible horrible migraine.
Beautiful Young People
One of the things that kept me hanging on during this challenging time was my students, in particular the cohort for an undergraduate speculative fiction unit I’ve been teaching at Edith Cowan University.
[Side-bar: What is speculative fiction? I hear you ask. It is anything that is not-realist, and no, it is not just robots and aliens; it is also Frankenstein, and 1984 and feminist re-tellings of fairy tales, and climate apocalypse and so many fascinating things. It is my novel The Ark, now a decade old.]
I hear a lot about how Gen Z are lazy and entitled, but I couldn’t have been more inspired by this delightful group of students, who were so engaged by the world they live in. Our discussions encompassed sex, power, queerness, disability, and so many issues facing us today, and it was a perpetual delight and privilege to hear their perspectives.
Creative Catch-Up
Last month I attended an event at Bracks Library where Lorraine Horsley chaired gorgeous Wiradyuri writer Anita Heiss talking about her newest novel Red Dust Running, alongside local author Sara Foster, whose new novel When She Was Gone is a ripping page turner! The three of us first met at a quiz event at Perth Writers Festival more than ten years ago and have always stayed in touch, so it was lovely to have dinner with them and to talk about writing and life. No one outside the writing world really understands the highs and lows of this life we have chosen so it’s always special to spend time with people who get it (especially when you spend the whole time laughing).
Complaint Letters Live! July 10th | The Rechabite
My next monthly Complaint Letters Live! stars Fremantle Press author Jay Martin; crowd favourite Clinton Bell, whose ‘selfish Batman’ complaint letter brought the house down at Beaufort Street Books last year; food writer and Barefaced storyteller Ange Yang, and jack of all trades, master of one (writing, we hope): Raihanaty Jalil. PLUS a mystery guest! Come join us on July 10th at The Rechabite in William Street, Northbridge.
There are still earlybird tickets available for $25 so get in quick! Concession tickets are the low low price of $15 as always.
Other things that have intrigued or entertained me lately
Book | Reading and LOVING Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s new novel Dream Count
Film | Wes Anderson | The Phoenician Scheme Not his most heartfelt work and the plot felt unnecessarily convoluted, but I swoon over his art direction and watch his films in a trance
TV | The Studio was a romp, especially if you are a film lover
Substack | Erica Berry | I Love Your Mediocrity I don’t know who this author is or how I ended up subscribed to her substack but her musing on how ‘the parts of my selfhood I struggle with most are intermeshed with the parts I hold most beloved’ was thought-provoking and resonant for me
OP Ed | Lyz Lenz| I'm a Great Cook. Now That I'm Divorced, I'm Never Making Dinner for a Man Again
The like button not super appropriate here, but anyway I'm SO SO SO glad you're okay. And I LOVE our catch ups too, that night was such a giggle. xxx
Oh no! I'm so sorry for all your ill health. What a relief you're better! And congrats on the complaint letters 🌟