Sunday, October 01, 2006

Draft of Book Proposal, Complete!

Notice that this is just the draft, but still! Now time for rereading Getting It Published, polishing of the proposal, polishing the sample chapter I'll send, and deciding where to send the bastard off to. I fully expect rejection, but one can't get it accepted if one doesn't at least begin to send the thing out, right? And so this gives me a couple of months from when I send it off to get the actual manuscript into shape. This may seem like a half-assed way to go about doing this, but I think I need some kind of deadline to motivate me here - like a real one - and so the only thing for it is to send of the proposal and then go into frantic mode.

While all of this goes on, I've also got to do the following:
1) revise cv (have been doing this, but just got comments back from Lovely Job Search Mentor, so must address those).
2) revise over-long and rambling job letter (see parenthetical above)
3) teach Very Difficult Texts in my upper-div class over the coming month
4) write a midterm
5) build the confidence of my writing students, as I may have shattered some of them with their first paper grades.

What I did today, other than COMPLETE THE DRAFT OF MY PROPOSAL!!!:

Went to Target, where I bought a new phone (because phones are ridiculous and not very long-lasting in the 21st century), a sweater-coat thing, 4 or 5 long-sleeved t-shirts, a leopard-print head band, and some toothpaste; went to Petsmart, where I bought much food for the Man-Kitty, as well as this new item for his rubbing pleasure (and he's very into it); went to the library to return a book as well as to get the Germano book (because while I did order a copy of it finally, I didn't want to wait for my Amazon delivery to look at it) as well as some others; shaved my legs (this may not seem like an accomplishment, but lemme tell ya - it was the equivalent of trying to clear-cut a forest with a butter knife); made a hair appointment; emailed one of my recommenders the DRAFT OF THE PROPOSAL; IMed with Clare; and entered into a new reality, at the encouragement of Medusa. I've got to say, I found my second life actually more boring than my first one.

On the agenda for tomorrow:

Job search stuff; house-cleaning; emailing diss adviser who doesn't respond to emails because he doesn't like people, and I am pretty sure that the broad designation of "people" includes me; prep for Monday's class; work on stuff for the quasi-administrative position and email the actual administrator with whom I'm working. Whew!

So it's been a productive weekend, and will be even more productive should I accomplish even half of the above list tomorrow. Oh, and I want to straighten up around the house as well, and maybe clean the bathroom.

You know, I'm feeling really, really good about all of the work that I'm doing right now, and I'm feeling pretty good about the whole job market thing. It didn't hurt that Lovely Job Search Mentor complimented me on my cv (the accomplishments, not the actual document - ha!). Now if only I could apply this kind of focus and drive to my personal life. Ah well, Rome wasn't built in a day, or the glass is half full, or six of one and half-dozen of the other, or some other dumb cliche. I'm tired. Time to get ready for bed.

8 comments:

Hilaire said...

Wow! Congratulations on the book proposal - that's *great!*

New Kid on the Hallway said...

Yay you! Good luck sending that thing out!

Chaser said...

WHOOOHOOOOOO!! You da bomb.

Dr. Crazy said...

Thanks everybody :) It really is quite rough, still, but it still is an accomplishment to have a complete version of it to work from.

negativecapability said...

Ooh, I want one of those cat rubbing thingy's.

(and congrats on the proposal!)

Anonymous said...

Well, congrat on the book proposal: more diffult than planting a tree, or having a child!

MommyProf said...

Good on you, mate!

Dr. Y said...

Congrats on getting so much done. I'll have to remember that cat rubbing toy for whenever I can finally get a kitty!