The exciting new thing is that I had an idea for a cookbook, oddly enough. It's a very concept-driven book, so I'm not going to talk about it in detail here yet, but if I find a publisher interested in it, then I may be asking y'all if you want to volunteer to be recipe-testers. I'm actually going to be trying to put together the proposal this afternoon, because I'm sending the internet erotica book proposal to Sarah (agent) tomorrow, and I might as well bundle this in with it. She seems excited about the concept, so that's encouraging. We'll see how it goes.
Much of today has been spent reading the Chatterjee book. It's not bad, but its focus is all on Bengali history, and while the principles he's illustrating still apply to Sri Lanka, the use of all this new history for examples is making my head spin a bit. He tends to assume that you're familiar with a lot of it, and I'm just not, not at all. So I'm having to work harder than I really want to; I wish I could just say to him -- 'look, I trust that your examples bear out your conclusions already -- could you just summarize the conclusions for me?' Instead, I'm skimming the Bengali examples and trying to concentrate on the nationalist theory bits; tougher to do that than you might think, because the theory is all woven through the book. Makes my head hurt. I'm not even halfway done yet, and I really ought to finish it by tomorrow morning. Don't wanna.
On the plus side, the other main things I have to do are about an hour's worth of grading, and a review of the Carroll book for SH. Shouldn't take too long; I think the plans for today are feasible. If I'm at a reasonable place around 4-ish, I'll probably dress Karina up in something pretty and go take photos of her. I'm not sure if it's a good day for it -- the sun is coming in and out, and sometimes it's clear and bright and sometimes it's rather dank and overcast. We'll see what the sky looks like at 4. I think getting out for a few hours would be good for me; I'm feeling a bit tied to the computer/reading chair and cooped up.
It's driving me crazy that today's a national holiday and so many businesses are closed. There are a bunch of phone calls I need to make, and they're all going to have to happen tomorrow morning. Nuisance. And I'm hungry. I should go eat some lunch. Oh, and there's a bunch of Potlatch-related mail that I have to answer -- and not just answer, but try to shape into something coherent for the diversity panel. Can't forget that.
I hope you guys are still enjoying the randomness of this journal. It's gotten so work-focused lately, I know. Of course, it generally is pretty work-focused; I don't do tons of talking about my personal life, although I'm sure you pick up a fair bit along the way. Jo Walton (one of the SH authors) sent me a note yesterday, saying:
"It's very very odd reading your diary. It's weirdly literary and not, and it gives me a feeling of knowing you disproportionately better than you know me....It's very different from usenet and people talking about themselves, because that's a much more mutual arrangement."
Which was interesting -- somehow, it still feels reciprocal to me. I think that's in part because many of you drop me notes, and in part because I read several journals myself. So that while I don't know all of you as well as you know me, I know a lot of you at least somewhat, and a lot of other people over the net. This all feels very natural to me -- the way I was meant to live my life, semi-transparently. I realize, though, that that's not for everyone, that lots of people prefer more privacy in their lives. I asked Kevin recently if he'd mind if I put pictures of him in here. His response was funny -- he said that he'd rather I didn't, but that it would be okay if I did. And I said that I'd feel guilty about it if he felt that way. And he said that I probably should feel a little guilty, but that it didn't need to stop me doing it. Heh. Maybe I'll be safer if I stick to pictures of the back of his head... :-)
Okie, I stopped and had a sandwich (sharp cheddar cheese and mango-ginger chutney on nutty bread, yum) and I feel better. Third mug of tea is steeping, and I think I can face one more chapter of this book. If I get that done, then I think I can justify putting it aside for the rest of the day and working on more fun stuff; I can do the other half tomorrow morning. Well, most of it, anyway. One of my classes is cancelled, so I'll have another hour and a half to read then. Should all be manageable.
If you're having a nice relaxed day today, enjoying the holiday (in America, it's Presidents' Day), then it's probably a good day to catch up on Strange Horizons. An article from one of our staff proofreaders, Chip Sudderth (who I originally met through this journal, so there's another example of the kind of thing I was talking about above), a story by Alan DeNiro (Clarion West '98, very cute, could develop a crush on him if he didn't already have a girlfriend :-) about music and jazz and family and a corpse, a poem, "accidental series", by Charlie Finlay (who apparently knows Kate Bacchus, whose house I used to go to for great Bay Area parties), and a review of David Coe's Eagle Sage -- you may remember that we did an interview with Coe some months back. So a nicely jam-packed week this time around; enjoy!