Fall 2015, the Sabbaticalization: Days Twenty-three through Twenty-five

(I'm dealing with a persistent post-cold cough that is interfering with my sleeping, so also with my typing.  Nevertheless, still soldiering on.)

• Reading: Finished both Jane Platt's study of parish magazines and the anonymous The Beleaguered Hearth.  The Beleaguered Hearth is in the running for Absolute Worst Novel of the Year, so tune in for my yearly round-up to see how it fares!
• Writing: 500+ words.  I've finished the introduction and am now integrating more of the secondary sources; I intend to write the conclusion and finish this round of footnoting over the weekend.  Then I'll let the chapter sit for a while.  Next, I'm going backwards to the first chapter.  Since my plan for  it changed orientation somewhat after finishing up here, I need to do some more primary reading to clarify the historical context.  (This actually addresses one of the points I made a few weeks ago: writing projects are fluid in ways that don't sit neatly with the rhythms of even the freest classroom instruction.  Students doing a research project should also be altering their work as they do their research and writing, but they neither have time for lots of research nor lots of alteration.) 
• Miscellaneous: noodling around various conference options and noting, with some exasperation, that a number of 19th-c. conferences have been scheduled either in extremely close proximity to each other or directly overlapping each other.