Pre-Vacation Organizing

Okay. Well, I haven't gotten a lot of work done, but yesterday I DID take some of the advice from that last link. I pulled a little file cabinet out of the playroom closet. Emptied it of many strange things, put it next to the desk, moved the printer onto it (which had been taking up desk space), and cleaned the desk and the rest of the office/playroom. So now I just need some file folders, and I will use the cabinet for all of the scholarly articles I have in giant piles. And the desk is ready for work when I get back, which is good because I won't get back until the middle of August, and I'll have about 2.5 weeks to crank out a bunch of work before I go back to Wales in September.

Anybody want to go with me to Wales in September? I think I'm going to fly out around the 3rd, get back around the 12th.

:)

Post-Vacation Working

I'm definitely having trouble getting back in the groove after a couple weeks of vacation. I've done very little since I turned in my prospectus draft, and I have a lot I want to accomplish this summer. I ran across these articles and thought I'd pass them along:

How to Re-start Your Dissertation after a Vacation, Part I

How to Re-start Your Dissertation after a Vacation, Part II

I'm supposed to be writing a full draft of my conference paper this summer, but it's been years since I wrote a paper (specifically 4.5 years, excluding area exams). I'm having trouble getting started. Any suggestions? Any surefire strategies you use?

Summer Madness

Hey folks. Hope to catch up soon, but I've been crazy busy moving into a new apartment working on a story and my orals lists. Also, check out the site which is keeping me busy building away: shoecellar.com Hopefully, I'll be resurfacing soon-ly!

Scraps

Thanks for sending the prospectus to me, Amstr! Everything has been crazy with parties, family visits, etc., so I haven't read it yet. I'll read it when I get back from the cruise. I'm eager to read it because I had a just a couple of hours on Wednesday to do a bit of diss work, and I found myself re-thinking the chapter organization. I'll be running my thoughts by my fellow Dissertanians when we get back from the cruise!

Back soon . . .

News (used to be a plural)

News item #1: My panel got accepted to the RSA conference! Yay! Now I just have to convince my parents or brothers or close friends to travel with us to help out with child care. Oh, and write a paper.

News item #2: I turned in my prospectus draft. And boy, is it a draft. No citations. Bracketed notes to myself all over the place about what I still need to write. Each "chapter" section in a different form and style. But it's turned in. My next step is to put together a working bibliography by the end of the month.

News item #3: Next up, working on writing the RSA conference paper, which will get me started on the reading and research for my Faerie Queene chapter. I'd love to have a solid draft by the end of the sumer.

How's the summer shaping up for you?

Yet again . . .

I had an "I really, really feel like quitting" week last week, and tonight, my ideas for my prospectus (and its theoretical basis) came together quite nicely--at least in my head. I hope sleeping on it makes it even better.

Hope you two are having good endings to good semesters.

One step closer to Italy

I found out today that my paper proposal for RSA 2010 was accepted to the panel "Maternity and Renaissance Romance Narratives." Now I have to whittle down my 342 word abstract to 150 words and submit it directly to RSA. Evidently, RSA reviews our panel and gives a thumbs up or thumbs down on the entire thing. I'll likely hear back over the summer.