Writing Update

Like my reading goals, my 2009 writing goals were fairly simple - finish the five New Jersey base ball team histories well before the May deadline and then get the Lloyd letters out to potential publishers by Labor Day. Interestingly I am well ahead of schedule on both goals, but things are no longer that simple. One of Carol's friends said something like "Life is what gets in the way of the plans you make" and there is certainly some truth to that in this case.

I sent my five pioneer project histories off in February long before they were due in May. Then at the end of beginning of June, I got an e-mail from Peter Morris suggesting that I might want to take the introductory material from one of the histories and expand it into a full length chapter. After reviewing what I had, this made a lot of sense, of course, it also meant one more round of edits and revisions to all five team histories. It didn't take too long, however and all the material was e-mailed out last week so that should be pretty much done, although there is always the possibility of more edits.

On the Lloyd letters, I have been pleasantly surprised that editing these letters of a 33rd NJ sergeant has gone much more quickly than I would have thought. Barring something unforeseen, I think another week or so should have this manuscript ready to be sent out - certainly no later than July 1st. So if nothing else had come up, I would be finished with my 2009 writing goals almost two months ahead of time. My original plan had then been to take the fall off from any writing projects both to take a break and to think intentionally about what comes next. That, however, is where life got in the way not just once, but twice.

The first change happened when I heard that proposals were being requested for editing a book about Ebbets Field which would be part of a McFarland & Co. series on historic ballparks. Paul and I discussed this, decided to submit a proposal and recruited a good team of contributors. The proposal is now in the hands of McFarland so at this point all we can do is wait. The second thing is something I have written about before regarding a book on early base ball in New Jersey. This had been of interest for some time, but a conversation at the SABR 19th Century committee conference in Cooperstown and another book on early base ball convinced me that I have a call to write such a book.

This book will be a lot different than the team histories I have done for the Pioneer Project, but a lot of the research I did for that project can be easily transferred to the new book. I already have an outline in mind and plan to at least try to work on this simultaneously with the Ebbets Field book if that happens. In the latter project I will only be writing one chapter so while it will be plenty of work, it will be a different kind of work. I could actually get started on the New Jersey base ball book now, but since I won't be taking the fall off, I am going to at least take a break as soon as the Lloyd letters are in the mail. At least that's the plan, hopefully life won't get in the way again!