reorganizing, reinvigorating, and reengaging

Well it has been an embarrassingly long time since my last post.  After a busy month of December at work, the holidays, and my latest battle with a nasty chest cold, I am ready to recommit to my creative academic pursuits.

Part of what also set me back--emotionally--was a publication rejection that I really wasn't expecting.  (Usually I set myself up for rejection since publishing in top-tier journals is so highly competitive and difficult, but the particular essay I'd submitted seemed perfect for the journal I submitted it to, so well, when I got the rejection, it hurt.)  At any rate, I am picking up the pieces and finally actually reading the outside reviewers' comments and have made a plan for revising the essay and resubmitting to a different peer-reviewed, however less competitive, journal.  This will be my goal for the month of February.

But I get ahead of myself.  It is yet the beginning of January.  So the goals for this month will be: 

• to take a different essay (the one that the project I presented last month in Ireland was part of) and prepare it for submission to a scholarly journal.  I think I have picked an acceptable top-tier publication.  I have presented on the topic twice at conferences, and I have been working off-and-on on the essay for the past couple years.  I think it is ready to be put "out there."

• to write a proposal for a spring conference on a different project (one that I hope to revisit in the month of March).  I think the due date for this one is my birthday--right in the middle of the month.

Since classes haven't started yet and since I have been sick, my schedule has been erratic.  At some point soon, I hope to establish a new strict schedule for working toward my goals.

Thanks for reading and supporting my endeavors.  I hope 2012 will be a good year for my scholarly life.