oursin says no! - and has a cold
Yesterday I turned down two, yea verily, two projects that I had been solicited to undertake. One was a book for a popular audience covering the ground I've already covered in 2 scholarly monographs and several articles, finally refused on grounds that the time-scale they suggest would mean another year of frazzle for me, and (subtext) it's time I stopped doing this to myself. The other was a request from A Younger Colleague to co-edit commissioned monster series of books on subject with which my name is associated: as I'd already turned down a similar request for same publisher's series in a closely related field, and the work involved sounds, on my previous experience of editing projects, No Fun At All (especially as the guidelines, if the first series I turned down is any model, are really rigid and constraining), and as this is my own time that we're talking about, I'd much, MUCH, rather be spending it on something that engages me, so, sorry, no. (I might, however, be persuadable to do a chapter or two specifically on subjects that interest me.)
But lo, then I was weak, and have agreed to do a 3000 word essay for another of these big overview encyclopaedia-ry things.
***
And in other news, I have a sore and irritated throat-type thing. It's not that bad (as these things go), and I might have dragged myself into work, had I not had a really bad night last night. I am also in hopes that taking a day off at this point may stop it getting worse, and possibly prevent its dragging on. My throat felt a bit sensitive late yesterday afternoon, but I thought that it was just a by-product of giving a presentation to visiting group, so went to the gym as per normal, probably not the best thing to do if I was coming down with something.