CONGRATULATIONS! You have won...

I gave a paper at Leeds to a total of 7 people, including my husband, the other speaker for the session, and the chair of the session (i.e. 3 of those people had to be there). This was disappointing, made slightly worse by the stress of delayed flights and missed connections which meant that I only just turned up on time. Nevertheless, I didn't fluff my speech, I managed to chair the next session (which, again, had only 4 people not there to talk), and then was free for the next week.

I didn't enjoy the speakers for the one Old English paper I went to - due to poor translation, poor presentation skills, and REALLY BAD time-keeping. The session on William of Malmsbury, by Rod Thomson and Michael Winterbottom, was excellent, and there were a number of other sessions which were interesting, and of varying relevance. I must say, I did not get to meet anyone very useful, career-wise, but did get to meet ADM, Gill Pollack, and a number of other interesting bloggers. I was not very out-going, and probably should have just bowled up to more people and started talking at/to/with them.

On the other hand, arriving home, I discovered a letter ('Time-sensitive', so I knew it was important!) which informed me that I had, and I quote, "been chosen for a distinct honour that is unparalleled in regard to this Century's historical records. [...] Your nomination is hereby endorsed by the Governing Board of Editors for Great Minds of the 21st Century." Well, I'm glad that someone has finally taken note of my brilliance, and realised that I am so important as to be among 'only 1000 individuals' who are stupid enough to pay them $395.00 USD for my copy of the "Hardbound Luxury Keepsake Issue of of the Fifth Edition of Great Minds of the 21st Century embellished with gold engravings and shipped postpaid (Wow! So generous)upon publication in 2012" (total print-run, 1000 copies), or $595.00 USD for the medal, a two-inch piece of actual 'solid metal' with my name deeply engraved (please note) on the reverse, or $295.00 for a proclamation plaque (production cost - $10 max!), or $1095.00 for all three. How dumb do they think I am?

So, how is the writing going? Well, I managed to do some work on, um, Tuesday? However, I only have teaching Tuesdays to Thursdays, so there will be no excuse not to have the article finished in a month or so. Keep me to it!

Blogging from abroad

This blog is getting about as much air-time as my writing.  I'm supposed to have an article under way, but travelling (and having to share the one lap-top) has seriously put a dent in my June/July.

However, I have managed to get my Leeds paper written - mostly.  I need to go through it a couple of times, reading it out loud, to practice slowing down.  I always speak too fast when presenting, so am going to really work on being slow, clear, and at least sounding confident.

Then there is the paper on St1 (for lack of a better cover name).  I have read the primary text through a number of times (usually in translation, but I have looked at the Latin a bit).  The biggest problem with writing about this saint is the lack of secondary material.  While this might sound like a god-send (on saints?!), what it means in practice is that I have to try and find similar issues/ topics on different saints, and then look round for secondary material on those.  Which is a whole lot more work.  Do I search for English saints only?  Female saints only?  Left-handed saints?

But there was some very helpful notes over on ADM's writing group - such as writing 500 words first thing in the morning - which I will try to enact over this next, busy week, so as to make writing a habit, and to force myself to think more deeply on the topic.