Alright, alright alright. I put my hands up and confess, I completely abandoned my prospective plan and neglected working on this site. January, it seems, completely kicked my backside to the moon and back. The graduate scholarship applications were pretty intense and required a lot more of my time than anticipated, there were some writing samples I needed to pull together for some while others needed a comprehensive research proposal and a bibliography to go along with it. But it was not all down to that. Shortly after my last update I received word of two academic journals sending out calls for submissions as well as a conference to be held later this year calling for papers. These types of things are essential for my future as a scholar and are incredibly valuable for my CV.
All things being said, there is only a finite amount of room on anybody’s table. For every one thing added to the pile, one thing must be dropped or reduced in some capacity. That is what has had to happen for this enterprise. I can see quite clearly that I was too ambitious in the commitments I made to working on this site and had stretched my time, energy and mental resources far too thin. Having now lost a large amount of time commitments in the scholarship applications and having dialed back my own personal expectations for my contributions to this blog I have developed a much more feasible work schedule related to articles questioning and examining fiction as a whole. At least until the next round of high stress, high intensity scholastic obligations crops up. Plus this is still a very rough work in process, so there is always the possibility of finding a new and better way.
It was not all doom and gloom for January however, my old writers circle has reformed and we are planning to meet soon and on a semi-regular basis. Bouncing ideas off of my peers and getting their feedback has always been an interesting experience. Having that second, and third, set of eyes overlooking a concept reveals all those little details that I miss. Especially when they have no preconceived notions of what to expect, or have an already established understanding of character, plot or setting. I am definitely excited for this as it only helps encourage me in my own writings and in discovering ideas for this very blog. I have finally decided on the additional sections to include in which I will add samplings of my writing to the world at large, for better or worse.
Soon I promise. Soon I will have a fully worked article for you all discussing the very merits and purpose of the genres of Fantasy and Science-Fiction. I am currently sitting at a comfortable 4273 words and will likely add another thousand or so to the body over the next week.
Anyways, thanks very much. All the best. And if you want you can follow on twitter @gadflyficiton and now on instagram under the same name.
DPJ Miles
Gadfly Fiction 