Punctum

In which may be found ...

An academic writer and creator of nonfiction, fan of classic literature and genre fiction alike, and her reflections on writing, culture (high, pop, and other), life (her own), and the gift of second chances.

Next stop: Germany and Austria

By HD Silversmith

It's official: June's article is winging its way to a prospective publisher, and there's nothing more I can do on its behalf, as simultaneous submissions to multiple journals is Just Not Done in the academic world.  While it took me a few days longer to finish than I had anticipated, I still met my goal of getting it out the door before mid-July. That's what matters.

Sigh of relief.

Now? 

Well, now I have a kind of writing hiatus for the next two weeks.  Or at least, I won't be working on an article or book chapter.  No, for the next two weeks -- from July 13-25 -- I'll be traveling, mostly to participate in the Salzburg Global Seminar on globalization in Austria from July 17-24. It's an honor to have been chosen by my university as one of its participants in this year's program, and if it weren't for the butterflies in my stomach, I'd be entirely looking forward to it.  But I know the butterflies will settle once I'm there (that's my hope, anyway), and then I'll enjoy myself.  I must say it looks as if the organizers of the week have given us a busy schedule of panels, discussions, and work sessions, though!

I fly into and out of Munich, however, because it's cheaper than flying into Salzburg.  I'm staying there a couple of days in advance of the seminar so that I don't show up jet-lagged on the first day.  Though I've been to Germany before, I've never been to Munich and my German is minimal at best.  However, I expect I'll be able to muddle through, and I'm staying in the old, largely pedestrian part of the city (the Altstadt) at either end of the Salzburg gig so that I'll be centrally located and able to navigate on foot.  I'm at one hotel before I head to Salzburg and a different hotel when I'm in Munich my final night at the end before heading home, but both are in the same section of the city.

I'm taking my ever-so-portable-and-cute (pink) Acer Aspire One netbook with me on this trip. I bought it several months ago precisely for this purpose and for any future work-related travel I might do during which I might need access to a computer, my electronic files, or the Internet.  It's very lightweight, it literally fits in my purse, and its keyboard is almost (but not quite) full-size. I do expect to be writing while I'm away, both professionally and on my own creative non-fiction, but I'm not sure how much actual blogging I'll be able to do: as I said, the schedule they've mapped out for us at the seminar is a busy one, and then, too, the wireless access at the Schloss Leopoldskron and Meierhof, where we'll be staying, is iffy in the individual rooms (damn those 18th c. castles!).

However, I've pre-scheduled posts for each day of my trip, beginning Monday, indicating where I am and what I'll be doing.  If it's also feasible to update as I go along, I will, and I may also give Twittering a try (there's a Twitter feed in this blog's sidebar).

Wish me luck!

Cover letters

By HD Silversmith

From WebGURU :: Submit Article to Journal:

Cover Letter

The cover letter should be prepared following the standard format for a business letter. This means you should put your address in the upper corner, followed by the date, the full mailing address for the Editor to whom the letter is addressed should appear below this aligned with the left margin. The letter should open with a formal salutation: "Dear Dr. Editor:" The body of the cover letter should contain the following information:

• the full title of the manuscript you are submitting for publication;
• a statement that your submission is exclusive, i.e., that you are not submitting this paper to another journal (It is not acceptable to submit your manuscript to more than one journal at the same time.);
• a brief statement summarizing the significance of the work and how this is relevant to the mission of the journal; and
• information on whom to contact in case the journal requires any additional information about the manuscript. It will also facilitate the review and publication of your manuscript if you provide the following information in your cover letter: * the name of the associate editor whom you wish to handle your paper (Selecting the editor yourself ensures that the person handling your paper has an appreciation for your science.); and
• the names and contact information (mailing address, e-mail) for any individuals whom you would like the journal to use as reviewers of your manuscript as well as the names of anyone whom you would prefer that the journal not contact for review.

Click here to see a sample cover letter.

These are good general guidelines for any cover letter accompanying the submission of an article to a peer-reviewed journal. 

The sample provided is a tad sterile, in my view, but then, I write from a humanities and arts perspective, and I think there's a little more freedom there to write more compellingly about the article one has enclosed.

Can you tell that writing the cover letter and then sending this puppy out is my task for the morning?

Overcoming perfectionism

By HD Silversmith

As I do a final polish on the article I wrote last month before sending it out tomorrow in search of a home in a peer-reviewed journal, I'm fighting my old perfectionist tendencies -- this despite yesterday's positive feedback from a senior colleague. 

Yup, those monkey voices that Anne Lamott writes about were chattering in my head.  "It's not good enough ... I need to fix X, Y, and Z ... it can't go out the door until I've addressed  Issue Q in more detail."

So I spent a few minutes trawling the internet for some encouragement, and fortunately, it wasn't difficult to find. Click on the link below for a good piece on perfectionism by James J Messina, Ph.,D., a licensed psychologist.  The bit I've quoted beneath it speaks eloquently to perfectionism's high costs, and the article as a whole contains some useful ways of reframing one's own negative thoughts.

Overcoming Perfectionism | LIVESTRONG.COM.

What are some negative consequences of perfectionism?
Examples of the negative consequences of perfectionism include:

• Low self-esteem. Because a perfectionist never feels "good enough" about personal performance, feelings of being a "failure" or a "loser" with a lessening of self-confidence and self-esteem may result.
• Guilt. Because a perfectionist never feels good about the way responsibility has been handled in life (by himself or others) a sense of shame, self-recrimination and guilt may result.
• Pessimism. Since a perfectionist is convinced that it will be extremely difficult to achieve an ideal goal, he can easily become discouraged, fatalistic, disheartened and pessimistic about future efforts to reach a goal.
• Depression. Needing always to be perfect, yet recognizing that it is impossible to achieve such a goal, a perfectionist runs the risk of feeling depressed.
• Rigidity. Needing to have everything in one's life perfect or "just so" can lead a perfectionist to an extreme case of being inflexible, non-spontaneous and rigid.
• Obsessiveness. Being in need of an excessive amount of order, pattern or structure in life can lead a perfectionist to become nit-picky, finicky or obsessive in an effort to maintain a certain order.
• Compulsive behavior. Over-indulgence or the compulsive use of alcohol, drugs, gambling, food, shopping, sex, smoking, risk-taking or novelty, is often used to medicate a perfectionist who feels like a failure or loser for never being able to be "good enough" in life.
• Lack of motivation. Believing that the goal of change will never be able to be ideally or perfectly achieved can often give a perfectionist a lack of motivation to attempt change in the first place, or to persevere if change has already begun.
• Immobilization. Because a perfectionist is often burdened with an extreme fear of failure, the person can become immobilized. With no energy, effort or creative juices applied to rectify, improve or change the problem behavior in the person's life, he becomes stagnant.
• Lack of belief in self. Knowing that one will never be able to achieve an idyllic goal can lead a perfectionist to lose the belief that he will ever be able to improve his life significantly.

So, back to those thoughts I had this morning ("It's not good enough ... I need to fix X, Y, and Z ... it can't go out the door until I've addressed  Issue Q in more detail").

You know what my response is now, after reading this piece on perfectionism?  "Yes, it is; no, I don't; and yes, it can."

And that's just all I have to say about thatthis morning!

Generous feedback

By HD Silversmith

My senior colleague got back to me this afternoon with generous feedback on my article:

"BEAUTIFUL WRITING!!! So descriptive. So clear. So smart. I'm in awe. I caught a few typos. [Then one observation re: a point I'd made that was incorrect -- good catch on her part and very helpful.] Congratulations on your good work. I'm so proud of you. And I'm further impressed by you (didn't think I could be more impressed by you, but you keep on doing amazing thing after another amazing thing.)

You rock!"

For the record, I think she's been over-generous, but both she and I know that what matters is a) my having finished the damn thing; b) now getting it into print in a peer-reviewed journal.  That's the reality on this publish-or-perish path to tenure.  Anything else -- like having something worthwhile to say, saying something you believe, saying it well -- is gravy.

However, it's good to know that someone whose opinion I respect finds it acceptable. 

Now to find a journal editor who does as well. ;)

Minimize writing distractions

By HD Silversmith

One of the things that Anne Lamott writes so well about in Bird by Bird is the inner noise that sometimes confronts us when we sit down to write.  Often we're our own worst enemies when it comes to getting focused:

"You try to quiet your mind so you can hear what that landscape or character has to say above the other voices in your mind ... There may be a Nurse Ratched -- like listings of things that must be done right this moment: foods that must come out of the freezer, appointments that must be canceled or made, hairs that must be tweezed.  But you hold an imaginary gun to your head and make yourself stay at your desk."

I've certainly got my own Nurse Ratched striding around in my head, and sometimes her voice is very loud, indeed. But what do we do about those voices if we can't shut them up?  How do we hold that metaphoric gun to our heads?

The way I look at it is, these inner voices want to be heard. 

Sometimes they're whispering to us about our deepest fears and insecurities about writing, and sometimes they're masquerading as reminders about what we really ought to be doing instead.  Either way, like all voices, they crave a listener.

So I'll listen -- but not forever. I'll listen for exactly as long as it takes for me to hear the anxiety and reframe it ( "I'm worried that I'm no good, but in fact, past experience has shown this not to be true.  The more writing I do, the better I'll get, so I'm going to write that next sentence now ..."). 

Or, if it's one of those fears masquerading as something terribly urgent (like "Wow, my computer screen is really dusty.  I should really clean it first"), then I'll write it down on a to-do- list for later. If it's truly something that needs doing, I can refer to the list later and perform the task.  If it's not, then no harm done: I wrote it down and got it out of my head, and now the decks are cleared for the writing I'm there to do.

Generally I keep these lists on pieces of recycled scrap paper, just jotting down the thought as it occurs to me and moving forward.  Here are some items I hastily scrawled on just such a piece of paper while I was working on finalizing the first draft of the 30-page article I finished last week:

• Record Punctum post idea
• Pre-post Salzburg schedule to Punctum [more on that in forthcoming entries]
• Download TweetDeck to Acer
• Put cover on Acer

In fact, they're all tasks I wanted to accomplish -- just not at the cost of my writing.  Using the approach of a keeping a to-do list as I wrote, I was able to stay focused, finish the article, and complete the tasks that drifted into my mind. 

Everything -- the writing and the tasks -- got done.

Down and dirty

By HD Silversmith

Today's task?  A one-day spit-and-polish session with the draft of this article:  cutting, wordsmithing, standardizing citations, and doing a few global search-and-replace edits.

Then -- no matter what shape it's in -- I'm firing it off to my colleague for her to take a look at.

My goal is to have this out the door by end of day on Friday.  I think that's doable, given the other obligations of this week.  The journal I have my eye on requires blind submission, three hard copies, and it's also going to get a well-crafted cover letter because I think that helped my last article:  it was one of only 5% of submitted pieces that got accepted by its ultimate home.

I'd rather play today -- or rather prepare for my upcoming trip to Munich and Salzburg (about which I'll blog soon, as it's ultimately writing- and work-related). 

But that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Cherchez le livre

By HD Silversmith

Update on my recent book order about which I was so pleased:

"Hello from Amazon.com.

We are sorry to report that we will not be able to obtain the following item(s) from your order:

        James Tully "The Crimes of Charlotte Bronte"

Though we had expected to be able to send this item to you, we've since found that it is not available from any of our sources at this time.  We realize this is disappointing news to hear, and we apologize for the inconvenience we have caused you.

We have cancelled this unavailable item from your order."

Time to hit up one of the alternate sellers linked to Amazon.  I've already tried my library system, and it's useless.

Bronte Blog

By HD Silversmith

Thanks to the Brontë Blog, which is the single best online resource for aficionados of all things Brontë, I've discovered three Brontë-related pieces of contemporary fiction -- by three different authors -- which I've ordered from Amazon. (Amazon is the site from which I've grabbed the descriptions below). Regardless of reviews or quality, I try to read all such works because, like so many girls, I imprinted on the Brontës when I was an adolescent:

Click on the links below for more information:

• The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë

"I have written about the joys of love. I have, in my secret heart, long dreamt of an intimate connection with a man; every Jane, I believe, deserves her Rochester."

Though poor, plain, and unconnected, Charlotte Bronte possesses a deeply passionate side which she reveals only in her writings—creating Jane Eyre and other novels that stand among literature's most beloved works. Living a secluded life in the wilds of Yorkshire with her sisters Emily and Anne, their drug-addicted brother, and an eccentric father who is going blind, Charlotte Bronte dreams of a real love story as fiery as the ones she creates.

But it is in the pages of her diary where Charlotte exposes her deepest feelings and desires—and the truth about her life, its triumphs and shattering disappointments, her family, the inspiration behind her work, her scandalous secret passion for the man she can never have . . . and her intense, dramatic relationship with the man she comes to love, the enigmatic Arthur Bell Nicholls.

"Who is this man who has dared to ask for my hand? Why is my father so dead set against him? Why are half the residents of Haworth determined to lynch him—or shoot him?"

From Syrie James, the acclaimed, bestselling author of The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, comes a powerfully compelling, intensely researched literary feat that blends historical fact and fiction to explore the passionate heart and unquiet soul of Charlotte Bronte. It is Charlotte's story, just as she might have written it herself.

About the Author
Syrie James is the author of the best-selling novel The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, which was named a Best First Novel of 2008 by Library Journal. A member of the Writers Guild of America, Syrie is also a screenwriter and lecturer. Syrie received a B.A. in English and Communications from the University of California, where she was awarded a departmental citation for outstanding accomplishment in English. Syrie lives with her husband and their two sons in Los Angeles.

• The Taste of Sorrow

Product Description
From an obscure country parsonage came the most extraordinary family of the nineteenth century. The Bronte sisters created a world in which we still live - the intense, passionate world of JANE EYRE and WUTHERING HEIGHTS; and the phenomenon of this strange explosion of genius remains as baffling now as it was to their Victorian contemporaries. In this panoramic novel we see with new insight the members of a uniquely close-knit family whose tight bonds are the instruments of both triumph and tragedy. Emily, the solitary who turns from the world to the greater temptations of the imagination: Anne, gentle and loyal, under whose quietude lies the harshest perception of the stifling life forced upon her: Branwell, the mercurial and self-destructive brother, meant to be king, unable to be a prince: and the brilliant, uncompromising, tormented Charlotte, longing for both love and independence, who establishes the family's name and learns its price.

About the Author
Jude Morgan was born and brought up in Peterborough on the edge of the Fens and was a student on the University of East Anglia MA Course in Creative Writing under Malcolm Bradbury and Angela Carter.

• The Crimes of Charlotte Brontë

"My name is Martha Brown, and for over 20 years I was servant to the Bronte family at Haworth Parsonage." So begins a deposition in this provocative if melodramatic novel by crime writer Tully (Prisoner 1167: The Madman Who Was Jack the Ripper). The story begins in modern times when solicitor Charles Coutts discovers Brown's deposition hidden in his 200-year-old law firm's antique-filled attic in Yorkshire. Coutts becomes fascinated by Brown's claim that the Bront?s were likely murdered and that elder sister Charlotte both knew and approved of Anne's death. To propel this doubtful scenario, Tully weaves together historical research and speculation to produce a revisionist, sinister picture of the Bront? clan. The chief villain here is not the accepted cause of fatalityAthe ravages of advanced tuberculosisAbut their father's associate, Reverend Arthur Bell Nicholls. Tully posits that Nicholls had a Svengali-like hold on the sisters, which likely inspired the creation of their novels Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey. A decade after the publications of their books, all three sisters are dead (along with their brother, Branwell, and their father) and Brown's detailed plot involves manipulative envy, property acquisition and poison. Brown's deposition falters stylistically in that it neither reconstructs Victorian language nor produces a modern equivalent, but the mystery it unravels will intrigue or vex readers familiar with the Bront? legacy. Coutts's comments suggest that the "authorized" version of this legacy is romanticized and mythic, a pure pastoral tale of three brilliant sisters languishing in the English countryside. Instead, Tully sees plagiarism, sexual indiscretions and a murder plot alongside religious fervor and burning literary ambitions. Just as interesting are the harsh details of servant Brown's daily struggles and her fly-on-the-wall perspective.

The first of the three (and the most recently published) has already arrived.  Can't wait for the other two!