Submission

On the very last day of my first year at this job, I have finished and submitted my final book manuscript to the press. I am exhausted and happy. It's probably a little short (admirably concise!) and it may be unambitious and tentative in places (a modest but engaging study!), but it's done and I do think it makes an important and tidy little contribution to my field.

M. is dismayed because she believes that I will be playing for he rest of the summer, and indeed I may have to spend some hours at the Xbox finishing "Fable," but my ongoing research agenda calls, not to mention my teaching preparation for the fall. Oh, and I agreed to review one of my old tutors' latest books for a journal. Still, today will be taken up with gleeful dancing and gustatory celebrations.

Have you ever wondered...

...what happens to all those hot young women who get unnecessary breast enhancement surgery when they age and everything but their chests starts sagging?

I used to wonder that. The answer is that they move to Reno.

Loose ends

I haven't posted on here for exactly two months, I notice. But as a result, perhaps, I just yesterday completed what I hope will be the penultimate draft of my first book. It's ready for human consumption and various humans are consuming it.

Of course, now I'm in the period when it occurs to me while at the gym that the first use of the word "collaboration" in the literary sense was in 1802, and that I should stick that fact into that one paragraph in chapter one. So I'm lifting weights saying "1802" with every repetition so I don't forget. I still wake up at 6:00 thinking about the fact that one of my endnotes is in the wrong place. And the Chicago Manual of Style is staring at me, daring me to start checking the formatting of citations.

But I took the dog for an hour long walk and I'm desperately trying to ignore the 190-sheet pile of prose on my desk and force myself to take a day off. I'd love to be at loose ends, but I'm finding it hard even to start reading White Noise for the first time, or to noodle around on the bass.