20150602.0742

A couple of points of good news come to mind. The first is that the Tales after Tolkien volume in which I have a chapter, Fantasy and Science Fiction Medievalisms: From Isaac Asmiov to A Game of Thrones, releases 18 June 2015. It has been a while since my work has been in print, and it will be good to have it happen again. If you are interested in medievalism--how the medieval is constructed and appropriated in the postmedieval--the book will be well worth buying. (I do not think I get any money from the work, but people buying, reading, and working with it will stroke my ego, and I like to have it stroked.)

The second is that I received a small honorarium yesterday. A couple of months ago, I participated in a survey of handbook usage, one that asked after how I teach with handbooks (grammar and usage guides, such as appear in the backs of many composition textbooks) and prompting me to get my students to report how they use them. I was paid for my contribution, although not much (but then, I did not spend much time in completing the survey or referring the student version to my pupils, so I do not complain), adding a little bit more to the household finances, as has happened before on occasion.

For it has happened before. Every couple of years, I receive an invitation to participate in such a survey, or to write a longer and more formal review of a textbook. Each time I do, I get a little money for doing it; those payouts, honoraria, range from $50 to $250 in my experience, offering a welcome bonus that often manifests as a dinner out with the Mrs. or a sudden payment against one of the many debts that I owe. Neither is likely the best use of the money; I ought to put it into some kind of investment rather than splurging on a meal, and it is not to my credit that I carry the debts I do (pardon the pun). And I might treat the money differently if it came in more predictably, but it is sporadic at best. It is a windfall when it happens, and I am not usually so adept as to catch it before it hits the ground.

That I may have to stoop and brush the dirt off of it does not mean I do not appreciate it. I may not trust it enough to keep it around long; I have had too many things spoil that I found otherwise than new and held onto in blind trust. But that does not mean I will not partake of a thing I find and find good. I would be an overly proud fool to do so, and I try to avoid folly. (I do not always succeed, to be sure.) I know that I am not so well off that I can turn aside the opportunity--or any, really. And to that end, the work continues, so I ought to attend to it.