"a 'boom' in it"

3 June 2025: Made my way through a really cool new edition of Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson today and was delighted by a couple of excerpts from his letters that appeared in the editor's introduction.

First, in 1892, he writes about his enthuiasm for the book and notes, “I believe there’s a ‘boom’ in it” (520). 

Second, in 1893, he tells a friend, “I’ve finished the book & revised it. The book didn’t cost me any fatigue, but revising it nearly killed me. Revising books is a mistake” (545).

Work Cited

Griffin, Benjamin, editor. Pudd’nhead Wilson: Manuscript and Revised Versions with “Those Extraordinary Twins.” By Mark Twain, U of California P, 2024. 

First Round of Revisions? DONE!

31 August 2024: Just emailed the first requested set of revisions and edits to my editor--two weeks early. In fact, still a month before the manuscript itself was originally due. I didn't have to spend a few hours today knocking them out (and yes--that's really all that it took!) and my tired-ass COVID brain wasn't loving the work, but it felt good (except physically--ha!) to just power through. 

I keep telling myself that grading this semester is going to be intense, so I need to push stuff through as soon as I can.

Anyway, chair dancing time, but not too intense because...COVID? Sure! This classic ditty just came on the 80s (???) station on Pandora, so it works. 

Pushing through modernism...

27 May 2024: I have found it more challenging than I thought it would be to return to writing another entry, perhaps because the subject--modernism--is so huge and complicated. Nevertheless, I pushed through it today, getting a decent-enough draft done. I'll revise it tomorrow, add it to the manuscript, and then--gulp!--start thinking about and working on the final pieces. 

The momentum continues...

21 May 2024: Got through revisions of eleven entries (!) today. I sat here for a while this evening trying to think of something different to post about, but honestly, this is the vibe these days and I am okay with it. Also love the fact that I did so much revising, but still had time to do some other work, take a walk, and be done in time for trivia. Lovely summer schedule! 

Six more to go...

Revising momentum...

20 May 2024: Like I mentioned yesterday, I am making good and quick progress on revising my entries. Even on a day like today--when I had a meeting on campus, a lawn to mow, and some other work to do--I still managed to get through eight of them. And besides being tired (didn't sleep well last night and the lawn sort of wore me out on top of that), I kept wanting to do more.

It's fun to go back and read stuff that I haven't read in months or even well over year. And I am writing this part almost in a whisper...I think it's pretty good?

Anyway, hoping to get through the last 18 (!) this week and knock out the reading and notes for the new entry by the end of this week. Then maybe write that new entry next week?

All of that before the end of May? Amazing if I can pull it off. 

Minari, yard work, and a tiny bit of book-work...

19 May 2024: Finally watched Minari today--a perfect movie for before (paused it about an hour in) and after doing a day of yard work (clean-up, weeding, and planting). I found myself laughing out loud, moved to tears, and just captivated by it. 

Still getting used to having time on my hands on weekends. There is still lots of book-work to do, but revising is going faster than I anticipated. As a result, I am letting myself treat weekends like, well, weekends, at least so far this summer break. But again, it's hard! By 5:00, I kind of wanted to work and ended up putting in about 90 minutes on book stuff. 

Revisions submitted...

29 October 2023: Excited to cross this off of my list: submitted the revisions for our "Year's Work" essay this evening. I imagine we'll get it back one more time--when it's in the proofs stage--but usually, today's step is the last big one. 

A complete draft

29 January 2016: What a great feeling to have a draft you feel good enough about to send off to a friend to read! Clicking "send" on that email on Friday evening felt so satisfying. It's not done, but we're getting there.

Revising...

  Not a bad way to spend a 100+ degree day, but it can wear a cat out.

I've made some good progress on the MELUS article today, adding the small bits of content that needed to be added, double-checking all of the quotations and citations, and taking care of some formatting. I'm hoping to give it a final read-through tomorrow, make some final revisions, and submit it by Monday.

Spring Break...

And I am living it here in my office on campus, revising revising revising... Trying to make a (sort of self-imposed) March 19 deadline for a "revise and resubmit." After working a couple of hours at Panera this morning, I had originally intended to work from home for the rest of the afternoon. Change of plans when I realized that the file version of most recent incarnation of the essay (the print out of which I had spent all morning making changes to) was on my computer at school. So here I am. I actually think it's working better this way. I think I might have been a bit (more) distracted at home.

With that said, back to work I go.