Spinning Out of Control (and no, that's not a fiber-related reference)

OK, so much (most?) of what you'll see on this blog is about knitting. But, since I haven't finished a project lately--this may change tomorrow--I figured I'll take this opportunity to whine about my writing (or lack thereof).

One of my goals for this year was to work more conscientiously and systematically on getting more work published. Well, yesterday I got the inevitable result of that effort--a rejection letter (or, in this case, e-mail). I shouldn't be too upset--it was, after all, the weakest piece I sent out. But you never quite get used to that disappointment. My biggest problem is that receiving a rejection always sends me into a writers block tailspin--I convince myself that my stuff is no good, that there's no point in still doing this, etc., etc. Anyway, I should probably force myself to snap out of it and do some quasi-creative writing today.

In other news, I've been assigned what's probably my highest profile book review to date--it's a review for Publishers Weekly of the new novel by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. I'm finding this incredibly intimidating, for some reason--I almost wish I didn't know the author's name so that I could just judge the book on its own merits. But it's a little late for that.

Also, I signed on to edit/write a book for this series of textbooks published by Greenhaven Press. My topic will be abortion. It looks like a challenge, something totally different than what I've done before. It also is likely to cut into my knitting/enjoyable but not exactly profitable writing time. But that's OK, since they're paying me quite nicely.

I realized today, after signing up for the Knitting Olympics, that I will be heading to NYC on a roadtrip during that sixteen-day period. Woohoo--eight hours of guilt-free knitting time. It's a good thing, too--if I end up doing the project I intend to, I'll need all the help I can get.