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And what a year!
Since I last posted, I have a) retired b) submitted my PhD thesis c) attended and presented a paper at the DWJ conference in Bristol d) successfully defended my PhD thesis e) become Dr. Intertext.
And now I'm honestly trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life! I don't regret retiring at all. I have some chronic health issues that were making it difficult to work more than part-time, and honestly if all I'm going to have is a part-time income I'd just as soon have it by drawing a pension and not working.
So I have the proverbial 500 pounds a year and a room of my own. What now to do with it? I'm not anxious or depressed about this; it's a privilege really to have the time and leisure to stop and think and let my heart decide for me.
I know I'd like to continue with scholarship and remain in a scholarly community. I think I'm fortunate in that my personal professional network does not depend on, in fact does not really include, anyone from my previous place of employment, but that I do in fact have quite a wide-ranging professional network, mostly in the UK, already in place. Interestingly, this originated in the old LiveJournal (which I still miss). And there's a really strong children's lit/fantasy lit academic group on Twitter. I want to try to be more active in that way, but again I'm trying to think of the best way to go about it.
I have some notions of turning my thesis into a book, or articles, or both. And I have some ideas for other things to do. I suspect much will depend on just sitting down and doing it, though I don't really know how one goes about getting academic books published. I'm sure I can find out.
And then there's a part of me that, like Ged at the end of The Farthest Shore is just "done with doing" and wants to spend quality time in my garden with my dog. That will happen, too, I'm sure.
Since I last posted, I have a) retired b) submitted my PhD thesis c) attended and presented a paper at the DWJ conference in Bristol d) successfully defended my PhD thesis e) become Dr. Intertext.
And now I'm honestly trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life! I don't regret retiring at all. I have some chronic health issues that were making it difficult to work more than part-time, and honestly if all I'm going to have is a part-time income I'd just as soon have it by drawing a pension and not working.
So I have the proverbial 500 pounds a year and a room of my own. What now to do with it? I'm not anxious or depressed about this; it's a privilege really to have the time and leisure to stop and think and let my heart decide for me.
I know I'd like to continue with scholarship and remain in a scholarly community. I think I'm fortunate in that my personal professional network does not depend on, in fact does not really include, anyone from my previous place of employment, but that I do in fact have quite a wide-ranging professional network, mostly in the UK, already in place. Interestingly, this originated in the old LiveJournal (which I still miss). And there's a really strong children's lit/fantasy lit academic group on Twitter. I want to try to be more active in that way, but again I'm trying to think of the best way to go about it.
I have some notions of turning my thesis into a book, or articles, or both. And I have some ideas for other things to do. I suspect much will depend on just sitting down and doing it, though I don't really know how one goes about getting academic books published. I'm sure I can find out.
And then there's a part of me that, like Ged at the end of The Farthest Shore is just "done with doing" and wants to spend quality time in my garden with my dog. That will happen, too, I'm sure.
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I'm still trying to work out how to fit 'scholarly community' into my life, so I have no advice on that; I think it's much easier to stay in it than to join it anew.
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Enjoy the life of a freewheeling scholar.
Maybe some sort of Twitter project -- something written specifically for it? I don't now what exactly -- questions about the genre, one-line reviews, a tweetstorm...
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