Progress!

1 September 2025: Finally--over the past two days--I have had the time and the mental space to get some writing done on my portion of the Year's Work essay. It feels so good to be in that groove. Right now, the Twain section is drafted and needs another round of reading-through, revising, and editing. 

Next up is the "literature" section about all the non-Twain stuff. Hoping to knock a lot of that out this week. 

(Always funny to make progress on work on Labor Day, but the freedom from a regular work day makes it possible!

It's here!

26 March 2025: What a delight!

We have a tracking notice!

24 March 2025: My copies of my book? They are heading my way. Scheduled delivery is Wednesday. My goodness--what a cool feeling!

Just hit "send"!

25 June 2024: As the last chorus of "I've Had the Time of My Life" played (not making that part up, but how perfect is that?), I hit "send" on my book manuscript. Wild, wild feeling. A last minute conversation with Vogel was enough to make me take a break, stop obsessing, and just hit the button. That also feels kind of perfect. (And three months early!)

And now for some more chair-dancing, to this fun track that just came on, also perfect given my almost spiritual connection to Footloose. 

Never gets old...

12 June 2024: So delighted to receive this in the mail today. (I think it actually arrived last week, but I kept forgetting to carry the package down to my office from the mail room and open it...)

Coming soon...

23 May 2024: This one's been a long time coming, but it was really cool to see proof in my inbox.

More thankfulness...

23 November 2018: A day late for a "what I am thankful for" post, but this showed up in my inbox today and I am grateful. So much fun to write/research/publish outside of my comfort zone, mostly because of my amazing co-author, Amy.

Belated reaction to good news...

12 July 2018: Since I got the news about my promotion to full professor, I have spent a lot of time thinking about how it will change things for me. Will I go a bit easier on myself in certain areas? Relax a little? Become an even more prickly woman? Say "no" more? Swallow fewer volcanoes?

I still don't know how it will all shake out, but--fully 24 hours later--I am stopping to have more of a reaction to some good news I got yesterday: an article I submitted to Transformations has been accepted for publication. It's my first sort-of-big post-promotion achievement. It won't get me anything substantial--no more promotions to be obtained, no raises in the near future--but it still feels great. Maybe a different kind of great? Like, here's this good thing that is just good in and of itself. Something I can be proud of just because it is good and I like it and I worked hard on it. That's kind of cool.

Shade, 1913 style...

14 May 2018: "One has but to examine a considerable number of the Doctors' theses in the library of any great university to be at once struck by the patiently wrought-out results of a great mass of mediocre observations." --John Harrington Cox, writing in 1913 about "The Best Preparation for the College Teacher of English."

This little project that I am working on about Lucy Larcom and her connection to some of the debates about gender, labor, and teaching today has led me to some fascinating analyses from over 100 years ago. It is strange how little has changed. Even in 1900, people were worried about compensation, work-load, and quality in/of composition instruction, for instance. And people were already concerned about the disconnect between the kind of research/writing graduate students completed and the kind of teaching they were doing. Cox's little bit of shade (quoted above) made me laugh out loud, even as I treasure and see value in my own little "mediocre observations."

One good thing from today...

24 April 2018: Just hit "submit" on an article revision. Still feels pretty darn good to do that, especially when you have a project you really like. Who knows what will happen with this article, but now that the last promotion is in the books and the stakes are in some ways much lighter, it's easier to send these things off.

Time for a bit of chair-dancing...

Two good things from yesterday...

1) My favorite tree in the backyard is blooming and 2) I learned that I am being promoted to full professor.

#Squadgoals

29 January 2018: At the end of a long day, it was quite nice to come home and find this waiting in my mailbox. And it is so cool to share the credit with my co-authors, two of the best colleagues I have at Shepherd.

"Like Castanets"

11 July 2017:

"Across the Mapocho
Santa Lucia
Barrio Bella vista
San Cristobal
Across the Mapocho
La Moneda
La Casa de Neruda

And on the cable car I climb
Up to the sacred virgin shrine
This city's smothered in the smog
The snippy-snap of wild dogs
Like Castanets" --Bishop Allen, "Like Castanets"

Two Bishop Allen songs in a week? I know...not a lot of variety, but as I find myself plugging away at my portfolio for promotion (to full professor--yikes!), I also found my feet doing some serious bopping and dancing (chair-dancing, of course) as this fun number played in the background--especially once the lyrics above start. It's a perfect little mellow summer song, I think--also perfect for doing sort of mindless yet important paperwork on a hot summer day.

Off it goes!

8 June 2017: "All done." --my friend Amy today, as she hit the button submitting the final version of our article, accepted for publication in Feminist Teacher.

Always a sweet moment to hit "send" on that final version of a publication, but this one--in a great journal, on a topic I really love, written with a fantastic colleague and friend--is a different flavor of sweet. And working with someone else like this--when writing is so often a solitary activity for me--involved so much listening, so today's post really hits this year's theme.

So long, Winter Break!

Last semester, while students in one of my classes were completing their final exam, I typed out a pretty ambitious goal list for the break. It included revising and resubmitting one article, starting to sketch out another, reading four books, and prepping for all my classes. This evening, I checked off the final item on that list and I gotta say, it feels good.

What felt best, though, was sending off those article revisions on Friday. And I kid you not, "Feeling Good" was playing on Pandora when I clicked "send." Perfect. 

Bonus reason to feel good: I found out today that another article has been accepted for publication. More chair-dancing commencing...

Accepted!

8 December 2016: Today's good thing? An acceptance letter from Appalachian Journal for my Ron Rash article. I have some revisions to do, but man, I am thrilled. This one feels really good.

Submitted!

16 August 2016: Today was a very busy day, but a good one. The highlight? Hitting submit on an email to a journal editor with a possible article attached. That was my last big goal for the summer and it feels great to have it done.

Hitting the "send" button again...

25 May 2016: Remember these posts? The ones that referred to the four projects I needed to get done between February 8 and June 1? Well, I just sent off the fourth and final project--about a week early, thank you very much.

Now onto something else...

Hitting the "send" button again...

8 March 2016: Man, it feels good to send off the third of four pieces I need to get done between early February and June 1. This was an article about Sarah Winnemucca for a volume on Realism aimed towards a student audience.

Three down; one to go. (The biggest one, I should note, is the last one, but I hey, I am getting to it a whole three days early.)

Midterm grades: DONE!

26 February 2016: Stayed in the office until well after 8:00 today grading midterms and getting everything class-related ready for Monday. It was kind of awful and kind of awesome. I had to get this work done or I will start panicking a bit about meeting my March 11 deadline. I need to work on this project (a short essay on Sarah Winnemucca that will be included in a new reference work on Realism) this weekend--and only this project. Because I am getting nervous and because new stuff keeps popping the heck up to complicate my schedule. It's...stressful. So yeah, I needed to get midterm grading DONE. And it was a slog, my friends--especially my ENGL 204 exams. Ugh.

But now it's all done and I am home and ready to attack that project tomorrow.

Was there chair dancing? Of course there was.