. . . on The Book. I've spent the past three weeks revising what's already been written with the aim of handing it over to The Editor (or, as we call her at our house, Saint Andrea) just after Labor Day so she will (I hope) agree that yes, we can publish this book in the fall of 2011.
So. Yes. Having done that, I'm now wrestling with the current Chapter From Hell, which concerns chickens, industrial agriculture, and agribusiness (trust me: it's more interesting than it sounds) with the goal of finishing it, too, by early September so I can include it in the chapters to send to St. A.
At which point, I will have written well over half the manuscript and then comes the truly hard part (which is already disrupting my sleep): researching and writing the last third of the book by December 31.
If you don't hear from me again, it's 'cause I've died of anxiety. Here's hoping not.
Got so excited at my progress on the new book that I thought maybe I'd get back to normal with the blog.
But --- maybe not. Because I've not started writing the next chapter yet, and my mental benchmark was "Starting writing the next chapter and then you're allowed back at the blog."
But here's something unrelated to that: the kitchen is really, truly finally finished. We moved back into it last Friday. Want to see the final product? Photos at Shutterfly. The first "album"--- "Before and After" --- is the quick-and-easy tour of before and after. (The rest of the albums there are more detailed and I posted those so the family could follow along.)
Maybe. Maybe not. But hey! I'm feeling like I'm over the Major Hump of the new book.
Or, okay, that at least I've got a serious and firm grip on the rest of its content. Still tons of work to be done, but I've made major progress since January.
And I'd like to get this blog back to normal after my research/writing hiatus: There's lots going on in the meat world. Indeed, it seems that every day I read about yet another controversy about this, that, and the other in the world of meat. I'd love to be commenting on it (and, yes, I am patting self on back for restraining myself these past three months and keeping my face buried in my work instead of shooting my mouth off about other stuff).
We shall see. In any case, I survived the winter, I survived our remodeling project (which officially ends tomorrow) (*1), and I survived that ugly bleak mid-point that every writer must crawl through when writing a book. Ugh.
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*1: Well, the remodeling is sort of officially over: the people who are going to put a couple of top coats on the new floor can't do so until next Friday (the 30th) and then, sigh, the floor has to sit and "cure" for another week. So here I am, staring at my amazing new kitchen --- and I can't use it yet! Oh, the agony.
Note: I originally wrote this post in late January by way of explaining why I've (intentionally) slowed my otherwise fanatical pace of blogging. I've decided to keep it up front as a "sticky" post. Other recent posts are below (as are about a bajillion older posts.)
The Gaye/Cleveland/Benson song has been running through my head lately. Apparently it's the soundtrack to my goal, such as it is, for 2010.
Which is: I'm hell-bent on finishing the book this year. I'm only half-way through the research and writing, and right now I'm feeling a bit hamster-wheelish, but . . . (No, the song doesn't have much to do with my goal or my work, but a soundtrack is good, right?)
I know, I know: You're wondering: "What the HELL has she been doing? Why isn't she finished?" Rightly so. I've been working on this book since early 2007 --- minus the 18 months I lost to trying to regain the use of my right arm. (Jesus. When I look at it that way, I feel like I'm working at the speed of light.)
But as I've noted before, I do all my own research and writing and I have a "life" beyond my work --- and so it takes me a long time to write a book.
So, determined to finish the book this year, I've got to stay as focused as possible. (I had lunch with two friends yesterday and felt guilty about not being at home working. Sigh.)
I'm also giving myself a crash course in the politics of contemporary food: I'm a historian, so I can tell you what happened a century ago, but I'm not clear where we Americans are now. And I've gotta figure that out so I can speak coherently to meat, both past and present. (Which I did this week when I talked to two reporters about meat in modern America.)
So on any given day, I'm engaged in two projects that consume most of my brain power. Which means: something's gotta give, and what's "giving" is my blogging time. Which means the blog is more-or-less on hiatus until (I hope) April. I'm still here, but . . . I'm not, if you know what I mean. (*1)
I'm using Twitter to keep myself connected to the larger world (especially the politics of food as we know it in the U.S.) So: I'll be in and out of the blog and more regularly at Twitter (hey! whaddya waiting for? get a Twitter account!). (*2)
Should you miss me (I wish), there's plenty here to keep you occupied. (Click the "other projects" link at the top of the page.) (Yes, since you ask, I am a wordy, ruminative soul.)
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*1: If I weren't such a wordy, long-winded woman, I'dve done what most people in my situation do: Just post a single blog entry announcing that I'm on hiatus for five months. But --- something interesting might come along! And I'd feel compelled to provide my two cents worth! And then where would I be?
*2: I remember when I first heard about Twitter that many pundit types asserted that Twitter meant the end of blogging. I can see why they thought that: god knows Twitter is MUCH faster/easier than actually writing a series of sentences and paragraphs. Instant gratification in a way that blogging is not. Still, I love the blogging format and the intellectual rewards it provides. But I'm not kidding myself that I've got time to write the new book AND blog 5 or 6 times a week.
The writing proceeds. Making good progress. Although, really, it helps to put the blog on the back-burner for the moment. Not that I don't miss it. I do. And I'll be back. But right now, I want. to. finish. this. book.
Did I mention that we're also remodeling our kitchen at the moment? And a bathroom? We are. So my other chore at the moment is to learn how to cook on electricity (we set up a temporary kitchen in the basement, and I'm cooking on a two-burner hotplate). I figure I'll get proficient at cooking with electricity just about the time the kitchen is finished and I can get back to my beloved gas cooktop.
(Photos of remodeling at my Facebook page, if you're interested.) Anyway . . .
Holiday Hiatus? Whatever. I will not be around much for roughly the next two weeks. We have family in town now, and they take precedence over blogging/tweeting/etc.. I'm recovering from a truly miserable, my-skull-is-a-dead-sweatsock cold, and we're going out of town for week the day after Christmas.
And when we return, we have to move the contents of our kitchen to the basement in preparation for the remodeling project, which will get underway the first week of January. So: not much blogging or tweeting until I resume normal business operations on or around January 4th.
May your days be merry and bright --- and I hope all of you can take time to enjoy that which matters most: family and friends.
Ooooooooh boy did I enjoy these four days off. More-or-less spontaneous vacation, which involved a visit from three of my dearest friends and a marathon of talking, cooking, and eating. No work. I repeat: NO. WORK.
Soooo.... now I'm going back to work. And as soon as my brain is back in work mode and has something interesting to say, I'll download the results here.
Hope you enjoyed your time off as much as I did. Honestly, who knew a few days down could leave the brain so rested?
Those mafia guys break knee-caps, right? We writers break backs --- of chapters. I'm hellbent on the breaking the back of this chapter I'm writing, so that's what I'm doing this week. Which means --- well, you know the drill, right: unless I run across a topic about which I simply MUST rant. right. now., there won't be much blogging this week. Off I go, walking not softly and carrying one big mother of a stick.
Alrighty. Off again to fish for several days. Until, ahem, something else sets me off. Actually, this is good time for an update: I'm closing in on the halfway point of the book. I'm also ready to write the next chapter, and when I write, I need to descend into the cone of silence.
Did I really just write that I'm at the halfway point? Wow. How did that happen? Seems like only yesterday that I was ready to toss the whole damn thing out the window. Hmmmm. Books happen in mysterious ways.
I took most of last week off because The Baby was here visiting (with his mama and daddy), which necessitated much cooking (because, yes, I do cook) and ga-ga-goo-ing, etc. No surprise, I got almost no work done. And now must make up for that fact.
So --- blogging will run slow for a week or so. Ya know: Until I get sufficiently annoyed about something rant about it in another five-part saga.
I wasn't kidding about the sloooooow blogging around here. This is what happens when I hit the mid-point of a new project: I slide into this big, deep well of silence, the better to commune with my subject and all its complexities.
So, no, I've not abandoned my blog. It won't be one of those ether-orphans, adrift and abandoned for all eternity.
(Okay, my brain is conjuring images of "2001: A Space Odyssey," one of my all-time favorite films. If you've never seen it, well, what the hell's the matter with you??) (I first saw it when it came out, a bazillion years ago. I saw it three times that weekend. Hey! I was in high school. Teenagers are, um, drama k/queens.)
Just think of me, if you do at all, as swimming in a sea of ideas and images and characters and facts and words. I'm happy!
Good news: Jack McAuliffe is not just out of the hospital. He's out of rehab, too. The guy's been "incarcerated" --- well, okay, you know what I mean --- since his accident in late March. Yes, the accident was serious. Nearly killed him. But he's one tough guy, and I'm so glad to hear this news.
The inimitable Anat Baron does it again. Months ahead of schedule, the dvd of "Beer Wars" is now on sale. (I don't think the woman ever sleeps.) To avoid the high cost of the middleman, she's distributing it herself, so it's only available for purchase at the "Beer Wars" website. Avoid the rush! Do your holiday shopping now.
Obviously I should have, um, toned down my previous rant. Apologies. (I'd delete it, but hey, it is what it is.)
I was annoyed that the upgrade demolished so much of the blog itself, but I was even more annoyed that I lost three hours of my life trying to deal with it (including trying to figure out how to back up the blog before I upgraded, an effort which, ultimately got me nowhere.
Anyway, again I will attempt to repair the damage this weekend. Today, however, I've got to be away from the desk for most of the day and night. A
nd The Husband comes home tonight, and I'd rather spend the weekend with him than with a broken blog. So: the damage will get repaired.
Soon. Soon as I can work up the energy to tackle something I'd really rather not have to mess with.
Because I'd MUCH rather expend that energy finishing Chapter Three, which is on the verge of morphing into Chapter Four. Which means, hey!, I've written about a third of the new book. So at least something cheery is afoot.
. . . . headed out of town. To visit The Baby. Who is now eight months old. And gorgeous: His mama's blue eyes. His daddy's rotund pink cheeks and bow mouth. His own spectacular personality.
I intend to spend the next five days goo-ing, ga-ga-ing, and generally babbling, fool-like, over The Baby. For the first time ever, however, I'll be traveling with a "mobile device."(*1)
So in between gazing at The Baby, baby-sitting (because mama and daddy would dearly love to eat one, just one, meal together), and generally hanging with The Family, it's possible I'll tweet, blog, or facebook (am still waiting for someone to tell me if that's a verb) while I'm gone.
Meantime, there's plenty here to occupy the idle among you. Until my return, dear readers, adieu.
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*1: Courtesy of The Husband, who purchased a netbook so that he could remain in communication with all the family as he goes on from The Baby's house to Bilbao, London, and Berlin, in order to, respectively, see the Guggenheim, visit our other daughter, and attend a conference. (I don't like to travel. I don't want to go with him. What can I say? William Faulkner and I have one thing in common.)
Christina Engelbert, co-founder, with her father Douglas Engelbert, of the Doug Engelbart Institute, has kindly corrected a factual error on a blog entry I wrote some months back.
Anyone who's hung around this blog for more than ten minu
tes knows that I'm obsessive about accuracy, so I am grateful to Ms. Engelbert for taking time to note and correct the error. In response to her information, I also changed the live link in that piece so that "Douglas Engelbert" leads to the DBI rather than to the wikipedia entry. (I use wikipedia with caution, and you should, too: many entries are riddled with errors. And in any case, wikipedia should be a first resort for "research," and never a last one.)
With apologies to Kern and Harbach, yes, sometimes smoke, or, in my case, life, gets in your eyes. I'm not without my love, thank god, but a number of out-of-the-ordinary matters and events have drifted, smoke-like, into my face and kept me from my usual blogging routine. (Have managed to maintain my other writing routine, the one that, in theory, will produce a new book.)
All of which has nothing to do with anything earth-shattering or even particularly relevant. Now: back to life-as-usual. I hope.
Have quick access to a computer -- am tired today but SO HAPPY for Anat Baron, the producer/director/writer of "Beer Wars." I hope all of you enjoyed the film. It was a long day, but the green room was lively as the panelists sat around together for hours talking, getting the makeup (ugh), waiting, re-doing makeup (ugh), more talking, more waiting -- and then doing live from LA. I'll be back in Sunday. Till then: enjoy whatever is good this moment.
I hope you''ll consider seeing the film. If you're at the event itself, or the reception after, please say hello. I don't own a "mobile" device so unless I come across some wowza internet access during the next few days, I won't be live blogging or tweeting until I return home. (Yes, I realize I'm hopelessly out of it -- but I work at home and rarely travel, so, ya know, why would I NEED a "mobile" device??)
I'll be back in action here at the website Sunday evening or Monday morning. (Am doing some other stuff after the film.) There's, ahem, plenty to keep you occupied in my absence....
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*1: Yes, I live in a place sufficiently "remote" that I need to leave tomorrow in order to be in LA on time for the schedule on Thursday. Film starts at 8 pm eastern time, but the panel participants -- including myself -- need to be in the venue by 1:00 pm.
Yesterday's update on Jack McAuliffe's condition (I was remiss in not posting yesterday!) From Jack's sister Cathy:
Jack sat in a chair today! [I told the nurses] "that's just Jack." (He wants to cut the bandage off his left hand, etc.) [He insists] he was not in any accident..and, of course, people rarely remember the accident itself, but he doesn't seem to believe them! He's in "step down status," which means he would go to an intermediate room (between ICU and a regular room), but they don't have many of those, so he's still in ICU.
