Status of my work (offically dull, but also rather essential)

It's Friday and I'm giving my progress report for the week. On the big things (except the PhD and teaching) I'm further behind than I was. I'm fine with the PhD because of that almost-all-nighter I pulled before Continuum and because I'm nearing the end of term - 3 more weeks! I shall report again tomorrow, just so that I can have finished one of the big things, for I'm close but just not quite there and a tiny bit more pressure should do the trick.

Because of the constant interventions of life (and the need to earn income and deal with health) I have cast iron excuses, but cast iron excuses aren't worth a scrap. They're scrap iron, in fact. I have to finish one article by tomorrow and get it off and I have to finish the other in two weeks. And I now have 4 BiblioBuffet pieces to finish in the next two weeks, plus the dissertation to work on. In other words, it really doesn't matter that I have had an interesting few months: life continues.

This is probably good for me, because I've had one of those weeks where no-one wants me. The writer's life is full of rejections, but that doesn't make them comfortable. All rejections this week left doors open (as mine generally do) but an open door is not the same as a project with income. Sometimes this doesn't matter, but right now, obviously, it does. On the other hand, there is a possibility of a bit more paid work over my non-teaching, post-PhD dry period, which may help see me through some of it.

And this is less a report-in than a witter, isn't it? With the essay-to-be-done-today-and-emailed-tomorrow, I have about 600 words to write and then I must edit it cleanly. That's all. With the BiblioBuffet (today) I have one more book to read and 2 paragraphs to write on said book, plus some emails to send.

By this time tomorrow, then, my goals are to have sent those emails including the one with the whacking great attachment, to have read three or four more books (for my to-write-about pile was definitely scary when I sorted it today) and to have written them up and to plan my attack on the next two weeks (ie the book chapter for which half the research is done and the introduction to the idiot doctorate, for which all the research is done but which seems formless in my brain).

la_marquise_de_ , I shall report in again tomorrow, just to make myself do all of this. If I don't, the backlog will just get worst and I am (as of about an hour ago) over the worst of the virus. Then I'll leave reporting in until today week. I expected time out for the con, but I honestly didn't expect such a mess of things following.