Bubbles between books

[olmue]

I'm finding myself in this little bubble of time where my manuscript is off for critique and I am not working on anything. It is WEIRD. (It took me four years to write this book.) I've gotten a couple crits back and they seem pretty doable (ie they are fairly minor and pretty much all of them will make the book better). I haven't decided if I'm going to wait until all come in and then combine them all into some monster document, or if I should handle them one by one, or what. What do you do?

In the meantime, I'm trying to let my subconscious swirl around and see what it wants to do next--finish off one of the partials I have (and if so, which one?), or start something new from whole cloth. It's kind of a delicious feeling, to be honest.

I know I'm going to be busy soon enough (we're moving at the end of May), but it just feels very weird not to be stressing about finishing this draft!

Comments

[patty1943.livejournal.com]

Moving again? What's up?
Glad to hear about the book.

[olmue.livejournal.com]

As long as we haven't found a tenure track position, we are ALWAYS moving. Coming here was one of those decisions where you basically feel like throwing up all day because you know it's going to be catastrophic, but at the same time, not having any job at all is catastrophic, too. Since we didn't find anything else, we came, hoping that something better would open up. It didn't, unfortunately. And while it's been an interesting adventure to be here (Alabama is GORGEOUS), it's simply not sustainable in the long term. We've got applications out and are really hoping to find something in our field, but if not...well, I hope we find reservoirs of energy we are presently unaware of. We're tired!

[patty1943.livejournal.com]

So sorry to hear that. Have you tried UF? We could meet if you came here. There is also Santa Fe Community College here in Gainesville.
I wish your husband could find a tenured position!
Sending good vibrations.

[olmue.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Patty. The positions usually require quite a bit of a process to even get approved before advertising (so, once a year, the higher-ups decide if they'll give a department money for a new hire, and even then, sometimes the positions get yanked). If it was a matter of just checking in to say hey! I'd be great for your program!--then you could have a bit more control. But the department heads and deans themselves don't have autonomy to open a position--otherwise, we would have been permanent long ago. (We have had some very good people unsuccessfully go to bat for us to get a long term position in there.)

We've certainly gotten to see a lot of interesting place we never would have thought of this way! But it's getting time where we need to find something with long term sticking power. I hope it's sooner rather than later.

[robinellen.livejournal.com]

That's pretty impressive (that you were able to keep the focus through four years). :)

[olmue.livejournal.com]

I did write other things during that time as well (including a whole book). But I'm kinda glad to see this one finished! As well as eager to work on SOMETHING ELSE. :)