Liz Argall

I’m often terrible at telling people when I’m announcing. It’s tempting to remain terrible so that I can get surprised messages from people going, “OMG! Am I listening to YOU?”

These are the events I announced as Ichabod ‘splain at the Wild West Showdown. I shall try to endure listening to my voice soon. Here are all my mistakes, forever enshrined on the internet.

Wild West Showdown

Friday 4am, track 1, Junction City Roller Dolls vs Sick Town Derby Dames.
Announcing with Mistress Mouth (warning, my mic is a little bit quiet to start with, thanks .00 Buck for replacing the microphone!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxbKooo6mFk

Saturday 10:15am track 2, I5 Rollergirls VS Rocky Mountain Roller Punks.
Announcing with Le Grande Mort

Saturday 5:15pm, Track 2, Seattle Derby Brats VS Rocky Mountain Roller Punks.
Announcing with Scott Chicken

Video TBF (To Be Found)

Saturday, 8:45pm, Track 2,Kitsap Derby Brats VS FoCo Spartan Babes.
Announcing with The Norwasian Persuasion

Sunday 9am, Track 1, Junction City Roller Dolls VS Ark Valley High Rollers.
Announcing with .00 Buck

Sunday 12:30pm, Track 1, Calgary Roller Derby Association VS Slaughterhouse Derby Girls.
Announcing with Dick Pounder

The good people over at Lightspeed Magazine asked me to write an essay for them about my experience as a woman destroying science fiction. It’s part of a great kickstarter to celebrate and showcase female contributors to genre fiction put together by one of genre’s finest contemporary magazines.

I think my favorite moment writing this essay was realizing that Richard Pryor is the actor who showed me the magic of computer hacking (in Superman III, a movie that came out the year I was born!). He was the first hacker I ever saw on the screen and showed me that computers were cool. As someone who can be quite intelligent and goofball I really liked him and was a character I could relate to (although how far they pushed the bufoonery bothered me, I liked it best when we laughed with him).  We often forget the power of the obvious and surprising Lex Luthor with the utility of socks was something that has stuck with me.

So here’s my essay, I hope you enjoy it. I think I need to watch Superman III again, I don’t think I’ve seen it since I growed up!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lightspeedmagazine/women-destroy-science-fiction/posts/738103

 

 

I’ve blogged about my resolve for the new year on a completely different website. Head over to the Things Without Arms and Without Legs website if you want to read about play, fun and burnout avoidance. I’d love to hear about your resolutions over there too, maybe we can cheer each other on as the year gets to the tricky middle bit!

So, I made an interesting derby discovery, interesting enough that I thought it deserved a blog post!

I was chatting to my sister about glutes the other day. She was telling me how whenever we get injured or hurt our glutes can shut down. It’s sort of the body’s way of saying OH FOR F$%&*%%%%% SAKE STOP DOING THAT THING YOU’RE DOING!

This can make life difficult if you a) want to keep doing the thing you’re doing or b) the glutes never switch back on again and you start using tiny muscles for things your POWERHOUSE of MIGHTY glutes should be doing.

Caty sent me an article about glutes and I was pleased to note that most of the exercises they suggest are exercises I do, or do similar ones. I thought, hmmm, interesting article, confirms that all the stuff I’ve been doing as prehab to activate my glutes is activating my glutes, HOORAY FOR DERBY BOOTY!

I thought that would be the end of it, but it wasn’t… the article planted a cool brain seed.

Ever since a really crushing fall last year, sometimes when I fall hard I can feel my glute switch off. Sometimes it goes numb, sometimes it just doesn’t feel as stable and it takes a while to get back into things. Off the track I’m working on my hips by getting horrible massagey stuff, active release and various exercises to build muscle aka natural armor. On the track my strategy has been to punch my glutes until they wake up and (if there’s space) do a few squats/sit down on my ankles.

Today I went down, felt my glute start to switch off and then I did something different. Thinking back on the exercises in the article I did some one legged squats and one legged balancing. That much more effectively targeted the shocked area and my glute came back to life faster and more evenly. One legged squats engaged a lot more muscles and I could almost feel the squat gathering up my muscles and bringing them back on line.

Yay one legged squats… and now you know, if I’m doing one legged squats on roller skates I’m not just being a weirdo. I’m also priming my butt so it can do some damage!

Good thing I keep a blog (woefully neglected the last three months) or I’d have no idea what I got up to…. please let me know if there’s anything I forgot that was interesting! I am constructing this from records, this year has been such a blur! I thought I didn’t do much this year and while there are many things I’m sad I didn’t achieve it’s good to know why I feel a little tired and have been enjoying a month or two without work related travel. There is so much value in lists.

Scrolling back through my posts I discovered I made a New Years Resolution last year. My plan was to cultivate the beginners mind. I think I did that pretty well in the world of roller derby and comics. I struggled a little bit more in the land of prose, bobbing in and out of that place like an reluctant hedgehog having a bubble bath.

Publications:

Things Without Arms and Without Legs, created comics 81 through to 225. I created my first minicomic, the content voted for by wonderful readers. My sweetheart gave me a spanking new iPad to draw comics on and it has been a delight. Yay Things!

Mermaid’s Hook – print and audio

Shadow Play – print and audio

Blunt Force Trauma Delivered by Spouse, one of two thousand submissions. It appeared in This is How You Die with Grand Central Publishing. It received many kind reviews.

One of my blog posts was reprinted on the Science Fiction Writers of America website! Jealousing is the new writing exercise.

I gave Apex publications sage advice on how to survive a convention.

I drew a visual poem about The Tick on the back of a placemat… it is now in the anthology “Flying Higher”

Increased the number of letters I wrote AND posted!

Workshops, retreats and challenges

Experienced the awesome that is Rainforest Writers Retreat. Wrote my best short story this year while I was there.

Launchpad Astronomy Workshop – download all the astronomy into my brain!

Participating in a month of letters. It’s good for the soul and I’ve written letters just about every month this year!

Participated in the Clarion Write-a-thon, as I do every year. I raised $300, drew comics, wrote words and created 20 units of awesome.

Participated in Nanowrimo… did pretty abysmally, but it’s got my brain rolling in new directions, so I think it was worthwhile challenging myself in a place of deep discomfort. The word count is not quite as terrible as my profile says, but it’s pretty close.

Conventions:

Emerald City Comicon – I worked the Rat City Rollergirls booth and we had a grand time.

Wiscon (and afterwards a water bottle was posted to me with so much awesome I almost exploded!)

Sakuracon – I didn’t attend Sakura con so much as was Totoro’s guard AND then got to don the enormous structure myself and be Totoro. Kinda completely awesome.

Norwescon – popped in and hung out with folks.

Live tweeted the Locus Awards, as is my custom… I love the Locus folks (a Hawaiian shirt chucked over my sweaty derby gear as I’d come straight from trying out for Rat City!)

GeekGirlCon – popped in and hung out with folks! Love this convention.

World Science Fiction Convention – many complex panels requiring lots of prep and my first one hour reading!… afterwards exploring Austen & New Orleans with my sister.

Orycon – many panels, lots of fun!

Roller Derby

As Ichabod ‘Splain I was an announcer at the Big O, as well as announcing London vs Oly and Taco Kickers vs Bad Reputations

I tried out for Rat City until I was blue in the face (and a photo of me featured on the tryout page!) and finally got on to Rat Lab (Rat City Roller Girls’ new skater program). Achievement unlocked!

I played in the mightiest roller derby bout of all time! NSHOBOS vs NSOOOOO GOOD LOOKIN‘ – it was hilarious and lovely.

I think I only NSOed one tournament in 2013! The PNW Juniors Championships… I could be wrong though.

NSOed a bunch of Rat City bouts, probably NSOed my last ever Key Arena bout (sniff).

I was runner up at the NSHOBO Awards for best NSO turned skater… if I work reeeeeaaaaaallly hard who knows, maybe I can claim first place next year.

Retired from the Lightning Fists of Science (Rat City’s Non Skating Official team) so I could focus on skating & not get confused by too many hats… though as Lightning Fist Alumni I still help out from time to time and they’ll never fully get rid of me.

Lost my first toenail.

Attended my first ever Halloween Party and haunted spooky thing (there were zombies, a gorilla suit and a chainsaw… the gorilla with the chainsaw in an enclosed space may have made me scream a little). I feel like I dressed in an adequately horrifying and spooky manner.

Went to Hawaii for the first time. This is under the derby section because we stayed with two referees AND Mike head refereed a bout and I skated in it. I sliced open my knee just before the game, but three stitches had me ready to hit the track. The stitches were applied by a nurse who had been one of Birute Galdikas‘ research assistants – ie involved in pioneering research about orangoutangs!

Became a much better skater.

And that’s it for the year… and it doesn’t mention any of the people I am privileged to spend time with, met, hung out with or admired.

Phew! I’m glad I got 2013 off my chest and got a little perspective.

Now what on earth do I do with 2014…?

Other “Dukkah” recipes How to eat Dukkah 

Today’s “Dukkah” “recipe”

Prep

This makes it look organized but often I’m doing prep and assembly at once, constantly tasting and occasionally setting things on fire. It’s probably be better if you just did prep and then assemble rather than all at once.

Put Walnuts in oven to toast. Burn them. Say, I didn’t want walnuts in my dukkah anyway, macadamia nuts are more delicious. Toast, sprinkle with salt (or purchase toasted, but fresh toasted is always better) and roughly chop in the food processor the following ingredients. Decant each set of nuts into a bowl before chopping the next set of stuffs. Over blending will give you butter, which is also delicious, but not what we’re looking for today.

• Almonds
• Sesame seeds
• Macadamia nuts (chop with a few sesame seeds, macadamias have such high fat content they turn into butter SUPER easily).
• Black sesame
• Cumin seeds (do last because very pungent)

All of these things are now in different bowls, so you can make different combinations and mixes (fun family activity, everyone gets to make their own dukkah blend).

Mix one – Zatar forward

• Almonds
• Sesame seeds
• Macadamia nuts
• Zatar blend (oregano, sumac, sesame seed)
• More sumac
• Anardana powder  (ground pomegranate seeds, adds a lemony zing of yum)

Mix two – cumin forward

• Almonds
• Sesame seeds
• Macadamia nuts
• Cumin
• Powdered Bush Tomato
• Powdered Lemon Myrtle
• Sumac
• Anardana Power

John Scalzi has thrown down the challenge with his own list of ten, here is my list of ten.

First the Australian cliche section
1) Played with wild snakes (poor snakes)
2) Had a tick leap from the head of a habituated (not tame) kangaroo straight onto my hand and immediately latch on
3) Waded through flood waters and even swum through the really big “puddles”
4) Seen the sky go red with the haze of bushfires (ok this is really for the Americans reading, everyone from my hometown has seen this happen)

Less cliched
5) Tried out for the Rat City Roller Girls four times and finally become awesome enough to be on the Rat Lab (RCRG’s new skater development program)… now I have to bring a whole new level of awesome!
6) Moved to another country with my sweetheart… not that unique, except that we arrived with six suitcases and posted a large box of hats.
7) Been paid cash monies to be a guest performance poet!… my first creative paying gig.
8) Probably said “World’s first Indigenous Safe Sex Superhero” more times than any other human being
9) Had a circus run away with me (managing a youth circus was my last ‘normal’ job. I said “for three months only” which of course ended up being six months)
10) Kissed a fellow actor so violently on stage I split his lip.

I will be at Orycon! Where I will be on many fine writerly panels.

Friday

Getting Your First Professional Sale
Morrison Room Friday Nov 8 2:00pm-3:00pm
An author can struggle for months or years before achieving their first success, but even after writing their opus, they can be tripped up by a process which is both entirely new to them and yet critical to their success. This panel describes what an author may experience as they
revel in their first success.
Jason Andrew, Liz Argall, Camille Alexa, Jennifer Linnaea

Effective Readings
Morrison Room, Friday Nov 8, 3:00pm-4:00pm
You may be a good writer, but reading aloud is a separate skill. Learn to make your words on the page sound great.
Liz Argall, Anne Bishop moderating, David D. Levine, Gra Linnaea, Sonia OrinLyris

Writing for Graphic Novels
Hawthorne Room, Friday Nov 8, 7:00pm-8:00pm
You’re a writer, not an artist! How to approach storytelling with an eye for graphic novels.
Blake Hutchins, Gra Linnaea moderating, Liz Argall, Aaron Duran

Saturday

Art collaboration
Ross Island Room, Saturday Nov 9 11:00am-12:00pm
Creating an image that is true to the vision of another artist, author, or musician while still retaining artistic integrity.
Steven Hoffart moderating, Liz Argall, Jeff Sturgeon, Vandy H. Hall, John R. Gray III

Interview with Editor Guest of Honor
Jefferson/Adams Room, Saturday Nov 9, 1:00pm-2:00pm
Liz Argall interviews Editor Guest of Honor, Liz Gorinsky

Liz Argall reading
Grant Room Saturday Nov 9 3:30pm-4:00pm
Liz Argall reads her own work!

Sunday

Graphic Novels and Comics as Literature
Hawthorne Room, Sun Nov 10 ,12:00pm-1:00pm
What is noteworthy in the unique storytelling found in graphic novels? Are books really more literary, when they’re not illustrated?
Liz Argall moderating, Jason V Brock, Viktor Maddok, David F Walker, Christian Lipski

Web Comics You Should Be Reading
Hawthorne Room, Sun Nov 10, 3:00pm-4:00pm
If you love humor, fantasy or total geekery, you really want to read webcomics. Writers and artists discuss their favorite web comics. Bring your faves to share.
Jake Richmond, Edd Vick moderating, Liz Argall, Blake Hutchins