Am I keeping up?

Up early again. For those of you curious re: my "new resolution", I packed away one article the first day, read a book the second (which wound up really being a bound volume of a journal with one 75-page article in it). Yesterday was the third day. I read/skimmed several chapters of another book, typed up some notes. So, I'm keeping up.

The bigger deal I think is the new found motivation to write and publish. A few years ago, I gave a talk at a conference, which in the midst of things introduced a novel methodological twist.


... like clockwork, 6:47 am: the boys are both up. Gotta run.


11:40 am:

Finally settled back into my things. Number one has just begun taking gymnastics class on Friday mornings, so I'm with the boys later than usual on Fridays. What I was saying above...

I gave a talk which introduced a novel methodological twist. A colleague asked if I had published it anywhere. No, not yet... The other day at a colloquium in my department, I suggested some things for the speaker which were taken positively. Have you written that up somewhere, she asked. Nope... you get the picture.

It's not that I haven't published. But not much. Not as much as I would like. I think I'm a bit afraid of sending my work out. Part of it is a bit of perfectionism, partly its defensiveness, part it's simply not knowing where to send it. Since my work is interdisciplinary, and touches upon several areas of expertise, I feel a need to present myself as master of all of them. At least, I want to be sure that I've considered all of the obvious points before sending it out, hoping not to receive some reply like: "uh, well, have you read these 23 articles that answer all of your questions?"

I sent an inquiry a couple weeks ago to a journal in a field other than what I got my PhD in. The response was:

Please excuse my tardiness in acknowledging receipt of your mail. As a matter of fact, my colleagues and I are unsure as to how a paper like yours could be accommodated in [our journal]. My sense is that we should not hold out too much hope that we'd receive informed response from a [specialist in our field] who is ready to evaluate the entire paper and urge us to consider it for publication. Needless to say, we appreciate your interest in [our journal].

Not a total brush off. But anything but encouraging. It's just more of the same. I need to change the perception of this work as peripheral. But how can I do that without getting published? So, write write write. I need to submit the articles even if they stand a good chance of being rejected. I've really got nothing to lose.