I’m beginning to plot my new scholarly project and figure out how to balance it with my creative work. I need to keep in mind that I have no deadlines for the scholarly project, and that it can develop as slowly or quickly as I want and can handle. I’m not going to seek out a traditional publisher for it–I’m very happy with the way my last book, Music for the Kingdom of Shadows: Cinema Accompaniment in the Age of Spiritualism, turned out using open peer review and Humanities Commons. I’m trying to learn to work at a new pace in which I do a better job of taking my chronic illness into account. Right now I feel pretty stable, having spent the last year trying various treatments for lupus/mixed connective tissue disease. I’m on a combination of medications that seem to be helping; and I just had radiofrequency ablation of my right occipital nerve for severe occipital neuralgia and am hoping that it will provide pain relief for the next several months.
There are so many projects I want to take on, but I’m increasingly aware of my own limitations and the human life span. I’ve got a spreadsheet full of scholarly ideas if anyone wants them–I know I won’t get to them all. I’m also aware that some of the projects I’d love to do should be done by other scholars. So as much as I’d love to work on composer Julia Perry, I think that as a white woman, I’m not the ideal person. I have PDFs of lots of her scores & would be happy to share/assist with anyone interested in her and her work. The same is true for composers Amanda Aldridge and Dorothy Rudd Moore. I’m eager to read what others write about all of them.
