Heading toward home
I'm continuing to work on the Jane project - my biography of Austen in verse using period forms. I managed a whopping/shocking ten poems while I was on retreat. I've written five in the eight days since I've been home, and hope to write at least two more this week, which is pretty great output for me. I have to do additional analysis, but I think I'm within 25-30 poems at the end. Somewhere out there, Jo Knowles is laughing at me, since I told her last week (before the recent 5), that I had that same amount left. But truly, I'm closing in on the end of the writing.
Meanwhile, I've got some interesting research queries underway. For instance, I've been engaged in a lovely email correspondence with a curator at the British Library Museum. Turns out I've asked a question about Austen's spectacles that (apparently) nobody has thought to ask before. I remain hopeful of tracking down an answer. If I get it, I may write a serious paper as well as a poem for my collection - because hey! Nobody else has asked the question before.
I have another query pending with the Jane Austen Centre in Bath, but as I've not received any response in a two-week period of time, I will likely have to track down an email address for the particular person I'd like an answer from. Specifically, my inquiry involves the presence of brothels and prostitutes on the short (three-block long) street on which Austen lived last in Bath. (If it's provable, it kind of explains why she was so desperate to get out of Bath, right?)
And all of the remaining poems that I know I have to write involve additional research. Always additional research.
Someday in the not-too-distant future, when I'm done drafting, I'll be able to return to reading for fun. Not that I haven't enjoyed the books I've reviewed recently (you've noticed that they're mostly picture books, right?), but it will be lovely to sink my teeth into novels as well. Um, once Brush Up Your Shakespeare month is concluded, of course. *eyes the pile of plays I still have to read*
Meanwhile, I've got some interesting research queries underway. For instance, I've been engaged in a lovely email correspondence with a curator at the British Library Museum. Turns out I've asked a question about Austen's spectacles that (apparently) nobody has thought to ask before. I remain hopeful of tracking down an answer. If I get it, I may write a serious paper as well as a poem for my collection - because hey! Nobody else has asked the question before.
I have another query pending with the Jane Austen Centre in Bath, but as I've not received any response in a two-week period of time, I will likely have to track down an email address for the particular person I'd like an answer from. Specifically, my inquiry involves the presence of brothels and prostitutes on the short (three-block long) street on which Austen lived last in Bath. (If it's provable, it kind of explains why she was so desperate to get out of Bath, right?)
And all of the remaining poems that I know I have to write involve additional research. Always additional research.
Someday in the not-too-distant future, when I'm done drafting, I'll be able to return to reading for fun. Not that I haven't enjoyed the books I've reviewed recently (you've noticed that they're mostly picture books, right?), but it will be lovely to sink my teeth into novels as well. Um, once Brush Up Your Shakespeare month is concluded, of course. *eyes the pile of plays I still have to read*