Hard News by Russell Brown

Love Stella's writing - Saz Martín is very relatable, even when she's being a complete numpty - but gutted I missed the Guardian piece! I've only been reading the paper nearly daily for a decade... Will rectify that.

As for coming out in the mid-80s, and the more earnest elements of The Sisterhood, oh yes. It went both ways - I got told more than once I was too "male-identified". I spent many years audaciously taking my bi gfs to the lesbian ball before deciding life is too short for that shit.

Glad to hear Stella is dealing to the health issues as to everything else. Great stuff.

Love Stella’s writing – Saz Martín is very relatable, even when she’s being a complete numpty – but gutted I missed the Guardian piece! I’ve only been reading the paper nearly daily for a decade… Will rectify that.

I've linked to the original blog post in the text, but the Guardian version is here. I still don't get how so many clowns could miss what she was saying.

As for coming out in the mid-80s, and the more earnest elements of The Sisterhood, oh yes. It went both ways – I got told more than once I was too “male-identified”. I spent many years audaciously taking my bi gfs to the lesbian ball before deciding life is too short for that shit.

I wound up knowing quite a few New Zealand lesbians in London, and it often seemed to me that they relished having come somewhere they could just be themselves.

Glad to hear Stella is dealing to the health issues as to everything else. Great stuff.

It is.

The Anti-Hero, her first official Doctor Who novella

published by Radom House (so appropriate).

I've never met Stella, and probably never will but she's one of the smartest, most insightful and generally hilarious people I've ever come across. (She knows life is far too serious not to laugh at it all, a lot. Basic wisdom too many never get.) This, folks, is why the internet doesn't suck harder than a black hole, no matter how hard it tries to prove otherwise.

And this just in on Stella's blog:

Just before Christmas I saw my consultant (ie, my consultant, the one who’d done my surgery a year ago, the one who’s always been lovely, not the two I’d seen last year, both young, both of whom prompted the first RR piece – and also not, shouty Guardian commentators, my cancer surgeon. They do different jobs, both brilliantly) – so, I saw my plastic surgery/reconstruction consultant …

And he said he’d read the Guardian piece and it made him think differently about how he spoke to women in my position. Unlike many of the shouty commentators, he totally understood I was talking about how the reconstruction feels physically (not emotionally) and he said it changed how he speaks to women about their upcoming surgeries. That he truly hadn’t ‘clicked’ (his term) before, and that my piece had helped him explain what was coming better. And he thanked me. And I wanted to cry because he’s lovely and really good at his job and if even he hadn’t thought to explain it was going to physically feel different, then probably none of them do*. So that’s a good thing. Very.

Fun Palaces...

...not a million miles removed from what Gap Filler is doing in Chhchch.

Ian, very Gap-Filler-ish!
We did contact them about Fun Palaces last year, but I think I got a gate-keeper ("we get lots of requests for gigs, we'll get back to you") as opposed to someone who realised we were offering (free! we're free!) the chance to light up the first Fun Palace in the world. As it was a lovely Australian library in the bush kicked off the international weekend (mostly UK but 8 outside the UK and many more welcome!), then Canada, France, Germany, & up to the UK/Iceland/Sweden ... but we're calling last year our pilot now, so if you know anyone Gap-Filler-ing and think they might like the idea (based on a 1958 never-built idea from the UK actually), do tell them to get in touch with me. stella@funpalaces.co.uk
thank you!

Awesome – it’s made my eyes leak (to coin a phrase – thanks Emma).

And he said he’d read the Guardian piece and it made him think differently about how he spoke to women in my position.

This is the best. You made a difference to someone, and that person is passing on that difference to other people, and lo, the world is a slightly better place.

I have been trying to work out how to get (middle-aged, male) consultants to speak to me, the patient, rather than talk past me to my (male) support person. It's not easy. It should be.

I'm in no position to organise anything because I seem to be organising every bloody thing at the moment and I'm losing track (to the point where I only saved a terrible event scheduling typo just in time for print last night) but Public Address is always at the disposal of people doing good things.

This is the best. You made a difference to someone, and that person is passing on that difference to other people, and lo, the world is a slightly better place.

And it's notable that the professionals did get it and wanted to know, as opposed to the angry Guardian commenters who so royally missed the point.

I have been trying to work out how to get (middle-aged, male) consultants to speak to me, the patient, rather than talk past me to my (male) support person. It’s not easy. It should be.

Show them Stella's blog posts?

so if you know anyone Gap-Filler-ing and think they might like the idea...

I have emailed Coralie Winn with all the links and your message - I see many useful synergies betwixt the two projects - here's hoping...

Stella speaking at the recent #ChangeHow event. Contains swears.

Accompanying blog post.