Well, I am editing, editing, edition. After so many long years of academia in which
a) I had many resources at my fingertips for working on papers and
b) I was usually working to find enough to say to meet length requirements
it is now proving very strange and challenging to attempt to cut a nearly 19,000 word thesis down to a 9000-10,000 word article with no resources but my laptop and whatever is available online (mostly relevant in the form of Webster's Dictionary which my publisher uses as their standard for spelling). I also need to adapt to Chicago Style rather than my more accustomed MLA (Chicago Manual of Style offers some quick and dirty guides to their system, but I could really use the handbook). I don't even have the original texts of the works I'm analyzing. Oh, sure, I could find a version of them online, but it wouldn't be the edition I'd used for the rest. Thankfully that hasn't yet become an issue given that I am frantically cutting things, not looking to add any extra quotes.
Well, I've got things down to 15,000 words, cutting about 4000 so far (I remember writing essays that were only 4000 words long!) but the next 4000 will be far harder cut and that last 1000 will, I imagine, be hardest yet.
I've had more discipline than I might have guessed after such a long break at actually working on this paper in a sustained manner. Nevertheless, editing has to be one of my least favorite parts of paper writing--researching being the most fun, followed by analyzing the research.
Tuesday 29 July 2008
Saturday 26 July 2008
Immigration Update
So today Ron and I both mailed off the latest sets of forms needed for the process of getting Ron to the States. Fingers crossed that these will have fast turn around. With luck, all that is left should be the interview in London and the medical requirements, but it is hard to be certain of that.
In the mean time, my own latest visitor visa runs out in early September and with July fast running out, we will need to decide soon whether I am returning for another visitor visa or acting as the advance force in moving to California. Either tactic has drawbacks, but I'll need to look for plane tickets soon--either a round-trip to Europe to re-set the visitor visa, or a one-way to the States.
This week, however, will largely be given over to academic pursuits: revising my thesis into a book article. It is certainly strange to be going through all this again--a subject so very familiar but one I haven't touched in a year. I have a contract at last, and now have only to make good on it. I need to cut the length nearly in half, and it would be nice if the half cut away could resolve itself into a second publishable work, but we shall have to see. Much the word count may go simply in tightening up individual paragraphs and sentences to be more succinct.
In the mean time, my own latest visitor visa runs out in early September and with July fast running out, we will need to decide soon whether I am returning for another visitor visa or acting as the advance force in moving to California. Either tactic has drawbacks, but I'll need to look for plane tickets soon--either a round-trip to Europe to re-set the visitor visa, or a one-way to the States.
This week, however, will largely be given over to academic pursuits: revising my thesis into a book article. It is certainly strange to be going through all this again--a subject so very familiar but one I haven't touched in a year. I have a contract at last, and now have only to make good on it. I need to cut the length nearly in half, and it would be nice if the half cut away could resolve itself into a second publishable work, but we shall have to see. Much the word count may go simply in tightening up individual paragraphs and sentences to be more succinct.
Bat in the Tea Shop
After several castle-less weeks, Janet and I made up for it yesterday. On thursday we had one of those moments where, having let a couple weeks slide by without talking, we both decided at the same time it was time to plan a castle trip--I called Janet just as she was planning to call me as soon as she got home. She delegated me to plan a trip (a dangerous move, but it worked out fine!). Since I was out in internet cafe land I didn't have my member's handbook with me, so I decided to simply use the webpage...and it was fortunate I did since I stumbled on to the fact that Rowallan castle is only open 10 days a year (plus three additional Saturdays) and Friday was to be day #10. So, of several possible routes, the decision had been made. I scouted out the presence of a few other Historic Scotland sites in the same direction and reported to Janet with my progress. And for once, everything went to plan!!
We were both a bit sleep deprived. I had a fiction-related allnighter just two nights previous and then only managed four hours of sleep the night before our Friday expedition. Janet too was tired, but excitement carried us through and off we set Southeast for Ayrshire.
Rowallan Old Castle (apparently as opposed to Rowallan New Castle which we did not see) is well worth a visit if you can manage it. The property appears to be maintained by Historic Scotland but owned by a landlord who holds the larger estate the castle is situated on, and the landlord does not seem best pleased with people coming around to see the castle. It seems he's agreed only to the minimum number of open days to still have HS maintain the castle, and provides no parking at all and is, reportedly, consistently cranky about the whole thing (this from some gossip from someone at one of the other castles later in the day). We did have our own brief encounter with someone who certainly fit his description, but escaped unscathed.
But as I said, Rowallan Castle is certainly worth a visit. It is apparently possible to arrange a viewing at other times, though given the above, I don't know how difficult that might prove to be. The castle was built and remodeled and added to over the 13th-18th centuries on a site that has archaeological evidence back to the bronze age (they showed us a nice pot decorated with nicely done typically-bronze age zig-zags and dots that was found on site). It is built on a hill, though not the highest hill in the region. The majority of the surviving castle is 16th-17th century. A bit more than a third--oddly the oldest and the youngest parts of the castle, though both on the same side--is ruined, the side that when facing the entrance is off to your right (east). Front right was the original towerhouse which would have been three or four stories high. You can still see parts of the second floor and bits of a fireplace, but mostly only the "ground" floor remains. Because of the way the hill is situated the ground floor of the towerhouse is nearly as high up as the second floor of the building across the way (which in turn has one of those basements that is completely underground on the courtyard side but has gunloop windows on the far side.
The surviving section of the castle are really more of a fortified manor house than a strategic castle, and there are really interesting indication of how the style of living shifted through the aras when it was lived in by a family and household. The really amazing thing about this castle are the relatively rare survivals in the better preserved section of the castle. There is still woodwork--not just doors but banisters and built-in cupboards and the like. There is is plaster and even paint in a number of places. There is an exceedingly rare kind of temporary wall--I've completely forgotten the name of it, but it basically consists of "bricks" made of straw and mud slotted into a thin wooden framework and then plastered over. Once plastered it wouldn't have looked any different from the plastered stone walls, but it would go up easy and go down just as easy. These two walls were put up to divide a larger room into two bedrooms. It has deteriorated just enough in one of the bedrooms that you can see the bricks and the wooden framework of most of it, plaster clinging only to a small section. Very suceptable to the damp, these walls don't often survive in Scottish castles, and our tour guide said she didn't know of another one in Scotland and has asked every tour group to go through if they've ever seen one--so far one man had seen one in England, and that's it. They're not quite sure when that particular wall was put up. Probably 17th or 18th century, so not medieval, but still very cool.
One of the things that very much sparked my interest was the "Woman's House." This section of the main building has it's own entrance and is the last part of the south side of the castle to be built, extending a little along the west as well. From that entrance there isn't access to the "ground" floor--that space was accessible through the main set of rooms though we didn't get to go in there. Instead you get faced with a stairway leading up and down. The upstairs room is one of the most light and airy in the whole place and in many ways it looks like it could exist in a tasteful modern house. Hard to tell exactly what is restored and what is original--I think the wood paneling is original, the plaster work was restored and the windows replaced entirely, but that's just my guess. There is a small room off to the side ("dressing room" according to our guide). But while this part was built for one of the owners' (laird?) wives, I really have to wonder if it was really her bedroom (as the presence of a dressing room would certainly indicate) or if it was a salon/sitting room type space or something. Because while it used to be common practice to have separate bedrooms for noble husbands and wives, having to go outside and cross the courtyard to get to the domain of the other is a bit much!
Well, there were some other cool things at Rowallan--the buckles on the stonework come to mind!--but we'll move on with the day. We headed into Kilmarnock for lunch and settled on the visitor center at the Dean Castle Park. In the tea shop/cafeteria we were dive-bombed by a bat!! The poor thing had somehow ended up inside in the middle of the day and was not at all happy about it. He kept swooping all over the place. Occasionally he would briefly land on a wall before streaking off again, but he seemed unable to either settle anywhere nor find his way outside. He was very cute though.
Off we went to peek briefly in Dean Castle. Unfortunately most is closed to tours only (Rowallan too was tours only) and we were a bit too nackered to face another 45 minute tour. It looked like a very cool castle though, of similar eras (mostly Renaissance I'd guess) built on a somewhat larger scale. I was impressed with the covered walkways running along the inside of the upper level around the courtyard. And they have a proper well rather than a hole in the ground like so many have been reduced to.
Then it was off to Dundonald Castle, "cradle of the Stewarts." This was far more ruined than the other two. 15th century. And it's history (inevitably I suppose, being so close) was twined with that of Rowallan. Elizabeth Mure came from the family at Rowallan. She was the first wife of Robert, then High Steward of Scotland and later King Robert II. She bore him quite a few children (ten?) including John who became King Robert III (the name John wasn't going over well, what with John Balliol's severe unpopularity so he changed his name to Robert). She died before Robert II became king, however, so she was never Queen. The Mures continued to make much of their royal connections, though, as is reflected on the imagery on the front of Rowallan Castle.
We were both a bit sleep deprived. I had a fiction-related allnighter just two nights previous and then only managed four hours of sleep the night before our Friday expedition. Janet too was tired, but excitement carried us through and off we set Southeast for Ayrshire.
Rowallan Old Castle (apparently as opposed to Rowallan New Castle which we did not see) is well worth a visit if you can manage it. The property appears to be maintained by Historic Scotland but owned by a landlord who holds the larger estate the castle is situated on, and the landlord does not seem best pleased with people coming around to see the castle. It seems he's agreed only to the minimum number of open days to still have HS maintain the castle, and provides no parking at all and is, reportedly, consistently cranky about the whole thing (this from some gossip from someone at one of the other castles later in the day). We did have our own brief encounter with someone who certainly fit his description, but escaped unscathed.
But as I said, Rowallan Castle is certainly worth a visit. It is apparently possible to arrange a viewing at other times, though given the above, I don't know how difficult that might prove to be. The castle was built and remodeled and added to over the 13th-18th centuries on a site that has archaeological evidence back to the bronze age (they showed us a nice pot decorated with nicely done typically-bronze age zig-zags and dots that was found on site). It is built on a hill, though not the highest hill in the region. The majority of the surviving castle is 16th-17th century. A bit more than a third--oddly the oldest and the youngest parts of the castle, though both on the same side--is ruined, the side that when facing the entrance is off to your right (east). Front right was the original towerhouse which would have been three or four stories high. You can still see parts of the second floor and bits of a fireplace, but mostly only the "ground" floor remains. Because of the way the hill is situated the ground floor of the towerhouse is nearly as high up as the second floor of the building across the way (which in turn has one of those basements that is completely underground on the courtyard side but has gunloop windows on the far side.
The surviving section of the castle are really more of a fortified manor house than a strategic castle, and there are really interesting indication of how the style of living shifted through the aras when it was lived in by a family and household. The really amazing thing about this castle are the relatively rare survivals in the better preserved section of the castle. There is still woodwork--not just doors but banisters and built-in cupboards and the like. There is is plaster and even paint in a number of places. There is an exceedingly rare kind of temporary wall--I've completely forgotten the name of it, but it basically consists of "bricks" made of straw and mud slotted into a thin wooden framework and then plastered over. Once plastered it wouldn't have looked any different from the plastered stone walls, but it would go up easy and go down just as easy. These two walls were put up to divide a larger room into two bedrooms. It has deteriorated just enough in one of the bedrooms that you can see the bricks and the wooden framework of most of it, plaster clinging only to a small section. Very suceptable to the damp, these walls don't often survive in Scottish castles, and our tour guide said she didn't know of another one in Scotland and has asked every tour group to go through if they've ever seen one--so far one man had seen one in England, and that's it. They're not quite sure when that particular wall was put up. Probably 17th or 18th century, so not medieval, but still very cool.
One of the things that very much sparked my interest was the "Woman's House." This section of the main building has it's own entrance and is the last part of the south side of the castle to be built, extending a little along the west as well. From that entrance there isn't access to the "ground" floor--that space was accessible through the main set of rooms though we didn't get to go in there. Instead you get faced with a stairway leading up and down. The upstairs room is one of the most light and airy in the whole place and in many ways it looks like it could exist in a tasteful modern house. Hard to tell exactly what is restored and what is original--I think the wood paneling is original, the plaster work was restored and the windows replaced entirely, but that's just my guess. There is a small room off to the side ("dressing room" according to our guide). But while this part was built for one of the owners' (laird?) wives, I really have to wonder if it was really her bedroom (as the presence of a dressing room would certainly indicate) or if it was a salon/sitting room type space or something. Because while it used to be common practice to have separate bedrooms for noble husbands and wives, having to go outside and cross the courtyard to get to the domain of the other is a bit much!
Well, there were some other cool things at Rowallan--the buckles on the stonework come to mind!--but we'll move on with the day. We headed into Kilmarnock for lunch and settled on the visitor center at the Dean Castle Park. In the tea shop/cafeteria we were dive-bombed by a bat!! The poor thing had somehow ended up inside in the middle of the day and was not at all happy about it. He kept swooping all over the place. Occasionally he would briefly land on a wall before streaking off again, but he seemed unable to either settle anywhere nor find his way outside. He was very cute though.
Off we went to peek briefly in Dean Castle. Unfortunately most is closed to tours only (Rowallan too was tours only) and we were a bit too nackered to face another 45 minute tour. It looked like a very cool castle though, of similar eras (mostly Renaissance I'd guess) built on a somewhat larger scale. I was impressed with the covered walkways running along the inside of the upper level around the courtyard. And they have a proper well rather than a hole in the ground like so many have been reduced to.
Then it was off to Dundonald Castle, "cradle of the Stewarts." This was far more ruined than the other two. 15th century. And it's history (inevitably I suppose, being so close) was twined with that of Rowallan. Elizabeth Mure came from the family at Rowallan. She was the first wife of Robert, then High Steward of Scotland and later King Robert II. She bore him quite a few children (ten?) including John who became King Robert III (the name John wasn't going over well, what with John Balliol's severe unpopularity so he changed his name to Robert). She died before Robert II became king, however, so she was never Queen. The Mures continued to make much of their royal connections, though, as is reflected on the imagery on the front of Rowallan Castle.
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