So. It has come to this.

[hawkwing_lb]

I'm giving a paper at Swords, Sorcery, Sandals and Space: A Science Fiction Foundation Conference, Liverpool, 29 June- 1 July 2013. My paper's on the reception of Minoan civilisation in science fiction. I had a fun time writing it, and putting together the slideshow. I think it's an interesting paper - even if it is rather tangentially related to my thesis.

I applied for my university's postgraduate travel funding to help with the 600 euro it's going to cost me to go, stay, eat enough to stay on track, and get back. Yesterday, I got a message from the travel fund administrators: they're giving me one hundred euro.

I can't afford to go.

This isn't hyperbole. My mother's been on sickleave for a year, first with a broken bone, then with surgery to remove precancerous tissue. She's going be on sickleave for another three months at least. We share household finances, and it's a damn good thing I was awarded a scholarship last year, otherwise we'd have hit rock bottom already. As it is, my scholarship will have to cover the mortgage this summer. Unless a miracle happens. We are waiting on a miracle.

(How, you might ask, could I afford to go to Greece? Simple. In the end, I couldn't. That's why I'm home two weeks before I'd planned to be. Rebooking my flights cleaned out my reserves, but staying would have overrun them entirely.)

If the travel fund had awarded me 300 euro, I'd be able to attend secure in the knowledge that the month of July wouldn't involve a diet of beans and an embarrassing inability to leave the house. (Two hundred euro! A lot of money when you haven't got it...)

So, it's come to this. After talking it over with some friends, I'm swallowing my pride and appealing for donations. If you can spare a few pence to forward academic intercourse, I'm asking.

The done thing is to follow the Kickstarter model and offer rewards. So here goes.

REWARDS.

If donations reach E50.00, I will write a 500-word review of a book chosen by the person who donated most.

If donations reach E100.00, I'll write a 500-word review of Lucian's True History as though it were an SFF novel written this century.

If donations reach E150.00, I'll write a 500-word review of G.W. Bowerstock's The Throne of Adulis: Red Sea Wars On The Eve Of Islam (Oxford University Press, 2013).

If donations reach E200.00, I'll write a 750-word review of Mary Renault's The King Must Die.

STRETCH REWARDS

If donations exceed E250.00, I'll write up every session I attend at the conference.

If donations exceed E350.00, I'll review with as much detail as possible Paul Roberts' Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum (Oxford University Press, 2013).

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Thank you.

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UPDATE 1200 June 14.

Your generosity has humbled and overwhelmed me. The cost of attending the conference has been more than covered: I will write proper thanks as soon as I am able, and follow up when I am slightly less gobsmacked, humbled, and overwhelmed.

Comments

[beth-bernobich.livejournal.com]

Done.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

I am endebted. Thank you.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Passed along US$5.00. I hope it helps a bit.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[sovay]

If donations reach E100.00, I'll write a 500-word review of Lucian's True History as though it were an SFF novel written this century.

I admit that is one of the greatest Kickstarter rewards I have ever seen.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

It will be a fun thing to do.

[fjm.livejournal.com]

Write to Edward.James@ucd.ie

Say I said to.

Ask if the sff can help.

Hugs

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Having gone to sleep and woken up to find people have been astoundingly generous, I think asking for extra funding at this point would be... overkill?

The response has been fair gobsmacking, nothing I ever expected.

[between4walls.livejournal.com]

Done. And don't feel indebted or reduced in pride or anything; it's an absurd world where having necessary surgeries can throw a family into these straits, or where the government can assume the debts of banks sight unseen but you have to use your scholarship money to pay the mortgage.

Btw, that's G. W. Bowersock- I was skimming/previewing his Julian the Apostate lately and kept misspelling it, too. (And that book is a great example of the power of one badly chosen allusion/analogy to throw the reader off completely, as I can't really say whether it was good or not since I was too distracted/annoyed by that one comparison. Don't compare your subject to Lenin and Mao (at least not to both in one sentence!) when there are plenty of other examples of the same trait!)

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

We've been saying all year, At least this is not America. Mum'll have a job to go back to, and the surgeries are covered, and she at least gets sick benefit. It could be so much worse! (And if I weren't going to the conference, we wouldn't really be temporarily embarrassed all that much more than we are already.)

Bowersock. I'll have to fix that. (Sock! Sock!)

[between4walls.livejournal.com]

Sorry, didn't mean to paint your situation in too-glaring colors. Just vicariously irritated that even in Europe the safety-net isn't as good as it could be.

We do too have disability benefit here! It just....really doesn't pay much ($8,386.75 a year, well below the national poverty line. How someone by definition too sick to work is supposed to make up the difference has never been clear). So, yeah. At least you're not in America.

Yay for all those strikethroughs! Have a great time at the conference.

And on a purely selfish level, omg lots of classics reviews! :-)

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Sick benefit starts on full pay, goes to two-thirds after six months, and goes to half after nine months, as I am understanding it. At that point it's expected most people are either back in work or transitioning to long-term disability. We just caught the unlucky end of the stick this last twelve months, with mum just about to return to work when regular preventative screening caught things in need of surgical treatment.

Reviews! I will have to work out a timeline for fulfilling them.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Because it will add to the overall coolness of the universe.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Done.
Academic underfunding is pernicious.
And I second the suggestion that you ask the SFF. If you need a reference for this, I will write you one.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I'm grateful.

Having gone to sleep and woken up to find people have been astoundingly generous, I think asking for extra funding at this point would be overkill. The response has been humbling, and I don't quite know how to show my appreciation.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

You don't need to do anything, expect go to the conference, seriously.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

One day I will be able to pay forward properly.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Exactly. This.

[fjm.livejournal.com]

If you need, ask. There is a small bursary for study in Liverpool in the archive that often goes un used, and there is other money for occasional student support. Sorry I couldn't have been more fulsome yesterday, but I was in transit.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

And before I can donate (since I want you to go to the conference, of course), it's already covered. I'm very pleased.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

People are astonishingly generous. I am overwhelmed.

[samhenderson.livejournal.com]

You are sure you're covered? (Just saw this)

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

There has been outpouring of generosity. I am more than covered.