{"id":1302,"date":"2023-11-28T16:59:22","date_gmt":"2023-11-28T16:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/?p=1302"},"modified":"2023-11-28T17:00:59","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T17:00:59","slug":"in-the-long-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/?p=1302","title":{"rendered":"In the long term"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/1-PXL_20231122_090334315-001.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/1-PXL_20231122_090334315-001-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1306\" style=\"width:655px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/1-PXL_20231122_090334315-001-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/1-PXL_20231122_090334315-001-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/1-PXL_20231122_090334315-001-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/1-PXL_20231122_090334315-001-624x468.jpg 624w, https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/1-PXL_20231122_090334315-001.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The gingko grove outside the Queen&#8217;s Building at Royal Holloway, University of London.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>An ever-present challenge in a long-term project like writing a book is how best to sustain momentum when other priorities demand your time and attention. Although I approached the new academic year this September in the hopeful expectation that I might be able to set aside some regular time for writing the book, this failed to materialise (<em>quelle surprise<\/em>). As is often the case, the academic term brought unexpected challenges that\u2014on top of the task of writing a significant number of new lectures\u2014meant that the book has been in a state of hibernation, and will likely remain so until the new year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Frustrating and a little anxiety-inducing as this lack of progress is, I did manage to carve out space this term to apply for a research fellowship that, if awarded, would give me the opportunity to bring the book to its conclusion. At the same time, I feel more optimistic that I will be able to dedicate regular days to book writing from January, largely because I am teaching existing material and won&#8217;t be on the energy-sapping treadmill of producing new lectures each week. I do hope this won&#8217;t be a case of famous last words!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2024 will also see a new editor taking over responsibility for my book at McGill-Queen\u2019s University Press. My current editor, Richard Baggaley (who has been a supportive and enthusiastic advocate for the book since we first discussed it in 2019) will be moving on to a <a href=\"https:\/\/rwbpublishingconsultant.com\/\">freelance role<\/a>. Although changes of acquisitions editor for an academic book are par for the course, especially when the writing of one extends over many years(!), I am aware that I will need to re-pitch the book to whomever inherits Richard&#8217;s portfolio. This is not necessarily a bad thing, of course; being prompted to reconsider the case for one&#8217;s book can only be to its ultimate benefit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An ever-present challenge in a long-term project like writing a book is how best to sustain momentum when other priorities demand your time and attention. Although I approached the new academic year this September in the hopeful expectation that I might be able to set aside some regular time for writing the book, this failed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1302"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1309,"href":"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1302\/revisions\/1309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inneskeighren.com\/williammacintosh\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}