Yesterday was the hardest day I've had in work terms for the longest time, just because I felt like such a sludge. I couldn't settle into anything! Luckily, I had some deadlines to get me moving. I finally, finally finished my Armida chapter at 5:30 pm and emailed it off to my supervisor. Hurray! That chapter has taken wayyyyy too many months. Then I even managed to go out jogging with Nika. It was a good run of productivity, after which I washed dishes, made Matar Paneer with Patrick, and completely slumped for the rest of the evening, legs aching. Fairly pathetic, overall.

This morning has just been filled with lots of irritating errands--finding lost bits of important paper (my membership number and PIN for voting for the Hugos online, Nika's vaccination card, etc.), calling up boarding kennels for the couple of trips we're going to be making this month, doing some last-minute tidying, etc....

The good news, though, is that I also wrote another page of the new short story, which is, as always, proving to be harder to write than I'd first anticipated, but still pretty darn fun. 18th-century Vienna, masked balls, demons...hard to go wrong there, from my POV. (And yes, for those of you who've read Masks & Shadows, there may well be a character or two in common! This story is just for my own amusement, so I figure I get to throw in as much fun stuff as I like, and worry about it later.)

And just in case there are any other writers of historical fiction reading this today, here's a link to a research fellowship that's open to creative writers. Hope it can help somebody out! So here it is:

The American Antiquarian Society offers
Creative and Performing Artists and Writers Fellowships for people who are creating works of art or non-fiction in any discipline designed for general, non-academic audience.

Fellowships for Creative and Performing Artists and Writers:

The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), a national research library and learned society of American history and culture, is calling for applications for visiting fellowships for historical research by creative and performing artists, writers, film makers, journalists, and other persons whose goals are to produce imaginative, non-formulaic works dealing with pre-twentieth-century American history. Successful applicants are those whose work is for the general public rather than for academic or educational audiences. The Society's goal in sponsoring this program is to multiply and improve the ways in which an understanding of history is communicated to the American people.

Fellowship projects may include (but are not limited to): historical novels performance of historical music or drama poetry documentary films television programs radio broadcasts plays libretti screenplays magazine or newspaper articles costume designs set designs illustrations and other graphic arts book designs sculpture paintings other works of fine and applied art nonfiction works of history designed for general audiences of adults or children

The fellowships will provide the recipients with the opportunity for a period of uninterrupted research, reading, and collegial discussion at the Society, located in Worcester, Massachusetts. At least three fellowships will be awarded for residence of four weeks at the Society at any time during the period January l through December 31. The stipend will be $1,200, plus an allowance for travel expenses. Applicants are encouraged to rent a room and prepare their meals in the Society's Goddard-Daniels House, an attractive and spacious historic mansion located directly across the street from the AAS library.

Funding for this program began with a grant to AAS from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund. Additional funding for the awards is derived from income from endowments established by the Robert and Charlotte Baron Fellowship and the William Randolph Hearst Foundation.

Deadlines
The deadline for 2006 applications is October 5, 2005

American Antiquarian Society
185 Salisbury Street
Worcester, Massachusetts 01609-1634
Tel.: 508-755-5221
Fax: 508-753-3311