Sabbatical Schedule

 Here is my daily schedule now that I'm on sabbatical:

8:00 Rise up. Drink some water. Curse my fate.

8:15 Take dog for walk -- right now we're only going about a mile, but when it cools off I plan to make it two.

9:00 Make coffee.

9:15 -10:00 Check the news, do crossword puzzle, curse my fate.

10:00 -2:00 Write. Right now I'm working on the edits for In the Deep.

2:00 Eat something. Right now I've got a big jug of tabouli, but last week I was eating my way through a batch of chicken curry.

2:00-7:00 Read and do laundry, or whatever other household chore needs doing. Today it's laundry. Once Dr. Skull is home, go to library/store if necessary.

7:00 Eat something. Maybe watch a movie/episode of a TV show.

8:00-midnight Read more, also do whatever other chore needs doing.

Midnight: Sleep, if possible. If not, read some more.

Interspersed among all this, I take the dog out, cater to the cats, answer emails, check Twitter, and brood.

Except for the insomnia, it's paradise.

Happy Sabbatical!

 This is the first day of classes at my university, so today is the first actual day of my sabbatical. Happy sabbatical to me!

Though honestly I feel as though I've been on sabbatical since March, when we switched to online teaching due to the virus. And I'll admit I'm glad my sabbatical is for this semester. I hate, hate, hate teaching online. It's nearly impossible (at least for me) to engage the students, and the students themselves have a hard time learning anything effective that way. I mean, I know we're doing our best. But teaching happens face to face. At least for me.

So I am hoping that this pandemic will be over, or at least over enough, to resume f2f teaching in January.

Which may be a pipe dream, if what I'm seeing around the science-side of the internet plays out.

Anyway!

Here's what I've done with my sabbatical so far:

(1) Finished the sequel to Fault Lines, In the Deep, submitted it, had it accepted.

(2) Have begun editing of the MS (I'm pleased to report that this one won't need the extensive rewriting that the first one did. Yay me.)

(3) Written and submitted four short stories. Two rejected. Waiting to hear about the other two.

(4) Written and submitted two book reviews.

(5) Read, and am reading, one billion books. Right now I'm reading Because Internet, about linguistics on the internet. 

(6) Caught, and recovered from, what maybe have been Covid-19. I haven't yet gotten the antibody test, so

(7) Slept late nearly every day.

(8) Cooked a great deal. This is because of the pandemic, though, and probably not because I'm not teaching.

Very productive so far! What I plan to do next:

(1) Finish the first round of edits on In the Deep, and resubmit.

(2) Revise the two rejected short stories, and resubmit.

(3) Begin the third book in the Velocity series (now called Escape Velocity).

(4) Anticipate and greatly enjoy fall, if it ever arrives.

That should occupy the next few months nicely.