Update, 9/30

Hi all,

It's been a bit!

I sent in the manuscript on schedule on 9/16, two weeks ago today. It felt great to get it out of my hands for at least a few months while it undergoes review. Though I'm sure there will be many changes and difficult days ahead, this is (for me) the biggest milestone: trusting that I've made something that is sufficiently whole and interesting, and important enough to share. As I mentioned in my first posting, that's undoubtedly my biggest stumbling block as a writer--I'm never satisfied enough to just stop and share the thing, I always want to keep writing and refining.

It's interesting the way it began to come together as a whole in the last few weeks, even as I was usually immersed in a single chapter at a time. I'm sure I can make that more apparent throughout the manuscript, but the ways I began to see the puzzle pieces of each chapter connecting to and building on one another became more intricate and more satisfying as I wrapped up my last revisions.

For example, there were far more connections between the earliest women in the study (Susanna Mountfort and Anne Oldfield) and the latest (Sarah Siddons and Dorothy Jordan) than I had appreciated. At first, this really left me with a quandary of how the other chapter fit in (Susannah Cibber and George Anne Bellamy), but ultimately I see them as existing in quite different more extreme contexts than the other women, and this adds depth and interest to the overall story. I ended up focusing on the areas of their lives before and after the 1750 Romeo and Juliets, meaning I ultimately didn't repeat anything from my recent Theatre Survey article, but was instead able to use it to make a tighter and more efficient chapter.

After finishing this HUGE task, I've been taking time to celebrate with friends and my wonderful husband, appreciating how many aspects of my job bring me joy, and actually getting some legitimate downtime into my schedule. It's been much-needed. I think it'll be a month or two before I feel back to normal--just in time for the end of the semester!

I've got two conference presentations coming up, and am working up an article on paid maternal leave (I mean, why stop, right?) that may take me back to the Folger before they close for renovations in January.

Wish me luck!