Hello friends, and a merry Fifth Day of Christmas to you! May each of you receive Five Golden Rings.
I'm in a wrap-up sort of mood, though not because it's the end of the year; rather, because yesterday I sent a completed manuscript to Fred Appel, my editor at Princeton University Press, with whom I worked some years ago on my "biography" of the Book of Common Prayer. I've now written another volume in this series, this one on Paradise Lost — a "religious book" in a rather different sense than most of the others in the series. There is of course still work to do, maybe a lot of work, depending on what Fred has to say — but still, to reach this point is a milestone. It feels good.
So for a while now I'll be playing a waiting game, something that as a writer you do a lot of. And not just for Fred's comments. For instance:
I'm waiting for the appearance of my critical edition of Auden's The Shield of Achilles. It'll be published in May, and if you use Amazon, you may pre-order it here.
I'm waiting for edits to my essay on modern mythmaking for Harper's.
I'm waiting to see if Oxford University Press (UK) will offer me a contract to write a biography of Dorothy Sayers for this series. (I am not certain that I will write the book but am seriously considering it.)
I'm waiting for Terrence Malick to complete his current film so I can write my planned book about his career. I've done all the research and made hundreds of index cards of notes, but I won't know how it'll come together until I see this film, his most ambitious yet.
So while I'm waiting, I'll continue to blog! As Venkatesh Rao just commented, "there’s an odd sort of romance to holding down a public WordPress-based fortress in the grimdark bleakness." And it's an opportunity for me to think myself into my own future — and maybe into my readers' futures as well. Your support allows me the freedom to do that. So thanks, and may 2024 be good to you, and to the world. God bless us every one!