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!
