..this time of mixed nature.

Harvard says "no" to my fellowship application. It sounds like my proposal made it through several rounds of the selection process, so if I don't end up in something tenure-track I may resubmit next year with some tweaking. It's too bad, but that's a competitive fellowship, and that's just the way it goes.

Oberlin sent a nice "we got your stuff" letter with the Affirmative Action form. I don't read too much into this -- some places are required by state law to send you the EEOC form, other places only send them to people they want to explore further, and there's no way of telling what's true for a particular institution. So I'll fill it out and send it back and see what happens. It would be a cool job, not teaching but doing programming for the LGBT community on campus which would be rewarding in its own way.

Job boards bring several new opportunities, mostly at Women's Centers or in the women's programming/LGBTQ programming sphere. I'm thinking this might not be a bad deal for a couple years while I write, especially since the project I'm currently ruminating on has more to do with queer studies and less to do with paganism. Queer studies is a hot commodity right now and I have some good data and ideas that I think will have more intellectual currency than the pagan stuff. There are a couple teaching positions out there, as well, that are worth throwing my hat in for. It only costs the stamp or the time to email, so it's silly not to throw another hook in the water.

A couple of applied positions have also come through my Inbox, and I'm considering working in the nonprofit arena if the academia thing doesn't pan out right now, and if the right position comes along. I have two that are worth applying for so far.

Worst case, I can likely go to work for a publisher as an editor or proofer. Not a dream job, but the fact is that I am very good at working with texts, and I have lots of experience working with proofs and galleys from all these years with The Boss. So if I had to put my head down for a year or two and pick up the blue proofer's pencil, I would be fine. I can think of alot worse things, and if nothing else working in publishing would teach me a lot about the proces and keep a fire under me to publish my own work.

Waiting to hear back from journal about the article abstract I submitted. They sound interested, but I am sure they will have many submissions and they have to pick pieces that will work well together as a volume. I need to stay hands-off with the article until I hear -- it's standard to only submit to one journal at a time, and I don't want to spend a bunch of time working on the article only to have to go back and make changes for the journal that accepts it later. So I'm thinking of other projects.

I feel alternately sad and deflated and incredibly optimistic about the job search. Maybe it's too much King Cake for dessert at lunch today.