Write

To be a writer, write!

I am a writer. I also teach writing at Cape Cod Community College. I advise my students to keep a daily journal, a practice I keep irregularly. Beginning today, I plan to keep a journal here. The focus will be to document the sabbatical I have been awarded for the spring semester of 2012.

Officially, the sabbatical covers the period from late January until early May, but I plan to take advantage of the entire time from today until the following semester. That gives me 10 months to make significant progress on my writing projects. They include four books, all of which are under way, but none of which are published yet.

• I Just Want to Be Happy (a spiritual memoir)
• The Elements of Academic Writing (a brief textbook for English Composition I students)
• Whither the Revolution (a historical novel about the revolution of 1968 on three levels)
• Mindfulness of the Mass Media (a book about becoming media literate in a media-saturated world)

I also plan to do some other things on my sabbatical:

• Attend Writers Conferences
• Continue writing poetry
• Compile a notebook of previously published articles
• Read more frequently
• Renew my running practice
• Deepen my meditation practice
• Practice yoga
• Be happy

The college is closed today, as are all state schools in Massachusetts, because of the approach of Hurricane Sandy. As of noon Monday (Oct. 29, 2012), it is just a cloudy day on Cape Cod with some high winds. It is supposed to  bet a lot more dramatic tonight.