Continuum 14

Unfortunately this year I double-booked and we were hosting couchsurfers on the Queen’s birthday weekend when Continuum is always held. I don’t really know how I managed to do that! I did go into the city on both the Sunday and the Monday, regardless and heard a few sessions but it was not the usually immersive experience I’ve enjoyed in the past.

However, I’ve just booked for Continuum 15 so it’s okay. The guests of honour next year are Kate Elliot and Ken Liu – I should start reading now!

Actually, I’ve been reading Shirley Jackson’s short stories and have just started her novel, The Haunting of Hill House. Jackson’s work  is described as  horror  or  20th century American gothic. At the same time as she wrote disturbing, edgy gothic works, she also wrote women’s magazine articles on housekeeping and child-rearing (she had four children with her husband, the critic Stanley Edgar Hyman. She died at the age of 48.

I’m going to teach a short course on her work at the CAE – it seems a logical follow-on from the course I’m currently teaching on revisioned fairytales.