All I want for Christmas is more TIME

Well, and a few other things ;). But more time would be great. I want a full night's sleep, I want time to help this kid AND that kid without them competing for attention. I want time to hold my whole novel in my head, as jenny_moss has been talking about, because I want to finish the thing already! 

Lots of depressing posts about publishers lately. It mirrors the university economy rather. It's bad enough when you as an individual haven't found your place yet; it's scary when, qualified or not, you aren't going to get that job/contract because the university has frozen all hires/publisher has put a moratorium on all submissions/is eliminating an imprint/has fired 10% of their work force. I can't help feeling wistful, afraid that any shot I had at joining the library in print form is out of reach, no matter how good of a writer I may become.  The poem that keeps running through my head is "Dream Deferred." Are there still those high-pay, high-danger fishing jobs up in Alaska these days? Is there room for non-business-minded people who would rather eat books?

There are a few flickers of hope, at least in academics. DH has one job interview scheduled so far. Not at MLA (the annual conference between Christmas and New Year's where the first-round interviews take place for tenure-track jobs). No, the university is saving money by doing Skype interviews instead. So for everyone who has tried to get me to do Skype for a long time, I will soon have an account and accompanying hardware.

Lap Boy had his four-month checkup and shots yesterday. He's been smiley-on-the-edge today, meaning he wants to smile, but he is a hair trigger from crying. It made shopping for party supplies oh so fun today. I'm scheduled for a number of events this week and today was the one day to really prepare for this party for my 7-year-old on Saturday. Since I have no idea how many kids are actually showing up, I'm going for the relaxed approach--food, cake, pin the tail on the donkey (my daughter specifically requested that one), a craft they can take home, and free play. DD today said that her friend is coming because she's excited about the dancing they're going to do. Um, what dancing? 

Back to books, I'm reading Minders of Make-Believe, by Leonard S. Marcus, which Harold Underdown was talking about at Verla's the other day. It's a history of the children's book industry in America, and it's rather interesting. Did you know that editors complained about the slush pile way back in the 1860s? Too many people in postwar America who thought it was "easy" and "glamorous" to write children's books. I guess nothing is new.

Okay, off to make another attempt to put Lap Boy in his own bed and hope that I can sleep. I wrote nearly 400 words tonight, which is exciting, considering the small window of time I had. I would like my brain to be working tomorrow to see if I can continue the feat; I have a chapter I need to put together, and I'll have to be alert to do it. Must think forward! Forget about the book out on someone's desk, forget about the horrible news Publishers Lunch brings to my mailbox every day, and think about the current project. Smile at my kids. Buy books to keep the industry going. (Ooh--I finally found my local indie bookstore--they weren't in the phone book, or at least I didn't realize that's what they were, but they sent us an ad so I checked them out... small, but I still dropped money there today, as well as with Amazon. Hey, it's for Christmas, right?)

I wish you all a full night's sleep, happy, well, children (if you have them), and good reading!