Spring Break 2025

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Hi Everyone!

I’m currently on Spring Break! So this post will be fairly short and will cover a few topics in a small amount of detail rather than going into detail on one specific topic. This has been a very busy semester for me, so I’m trying to balance getting enough rest to finish out the semester strong while doing the things that I need to do in order to catch up from getting behind in the earlier semester. It doesn’t help that our semester essentially started one week earlier than normal and that our Spring Break is 1-2 weeks later than normal but still — Spring Break is finally here and I’m using it as intended — which is 1) a time to get some rest in and 2) time to catch up where possible.

Grading

This is where I’m focused on catching up the most — thanks to the early start of the semester and lots of professorial duties, I’ve had to let grading slide in order to complete the duties. While most of the duties are finished, I still have some duties remaining but my goal is to put a significant amount of time each day into catching up grades for as many of the classes that I’m teaching as possible. There will be essentially one month left when we return, so I’d like to have as much done as possible.

Star Wars Rebels/Reacher, Season 3

This week, I’m devoting myself to watching/catching up on several series (may only be the two in the heading but I’d like to see others if possible). I recently finished Star Wars The Clone Wars Animated Series and I saw where Star Wars Rebels acts as continuation of the SWCW series (of a sorts — different characters but continues the storyline). As the show is short (30 min episodes), I’m watching 1-2 per day. I’m already on Season 2 and will probably make it into Season 3 by the middle of the week. Reacher just started its Season 3 as well and my Season 1 Review of the series has been my top posting of the last two weeks. I’ll probably put out a Season 2 review of the show (spoilers: I liked it) as well as a Season 3 review but there are other posts that I want to get to, so all the hype and hoopla will have probably died down around the show by the time I get to it.

Creative Writing and Academic Writing

So, finally, to round this week out, I’d like to complete two pieces of writing. First, I’d like to complete the “Working Draft” of Project Bear. The Baen Fantasy Adventure Award’s deadline of April 30th is coming up fast. Last year, it came up on me too fast, and even though I was able to finish and submit Dire before the deadline, somehow my story got missed and I never received a response from the contest. I knew it didn’t win when I didn’t receive an email letting me know that I was one of the finalists, but they usually send out rejection notices (or at least they did with my first submission — The Runner), but I didn’t get one and had to assume that the rejection email either hadn’t been sent out or that my story had been missed by the contest editors. This time, I’d like to have my submission in just before or just after Easter (or have it in by that Sunday before the deadline — by 2 or 3 days at the latest). This way, I can be sure that my submission can be seen and considered for the contest (which, if I’m honest, I have no real way of knowing if they actually saw my submission or not which is a real bummer as I worked hard to get that story in before the deadline. I even used it to show my English 255 Creative Writing class that one should always try to meet the deadlines when submitting their work). So unfortunate — I’d like to avoid a repeat of this, if possible. Also, even though I turned in my chapter for a scholarly anthology, it was right after (two weeks) I had to do a Three Year Tenure Portfolio, a TN Philological Association Conference (one week), and present a local Film Festival (two days!) so it wasn’t very well done. I’d like to take this week and revise it and make it better so that any feedback I receive on it from the editors/peer review process will be relevant and useful, so my goal is to work on that as well.

Well, I just wanted to let everyone know why this post is a little late and why it isn’t in the usual format. Next week, I’ll be back to the regularly scheduled content but I’m going to take it as easy as possible this week! Hope you have a good week!

SidneyIn-Progress — CreativeThe Runner (2023 Revision) (Fantasy Story: 4100 words: 21 Submissions)Status:  Out  (In — looking for a market)Dire (2024) (Fantasy Short Story: 4900 words: 6 Submissions)Status: Out (Out to Publisher)Project Bear (2025)Completed. 1st Draft (Rough Draft) In-Progress. 2nd Draft (“Working” Draft)In-Progress — Scholarly Chapter 3 — How Nichelle Nichols’ Uhura Inspired the African American Female Character in Science Fiction 
Space, the Feminist Frontier: Essays on Sex and Gender in Star Trek
Status: Published! Out NOW @ Amazon.com (Please consider a purchase to support the authors!)Unnamed Book Chapter
Status:  In-Progress PUBLISHED WORKS of Sidney Blaylock, Jr.

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

Read Skin Deep (Science Fiction) for Free at  Aurora Wolf Read Childe Roland (Fantasy) for Free at  Electric Spec Purchase  Unhallowed  (Fantasy short-story: Weird Western) on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase  Independent  (Science Fiction short story) on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase  HawkeMoon  (Fantasy shorty-story) on Amazon.com (Paperback) or eBookPurchase  Dragonhawk  (Fantasy short-story) on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase  WarLight  (Science Fiction short-story) on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase  Ship of Shadows  (Science Fiction shorty-story) on Amazon.com (Paperback) or KindlePurchase  Faerie Knight  (Fantasy short-story–Faerie) on Amazon.com (Paperback) or Kindle