A note on updates and new projects!

-

 Hello friends! First of all, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to read so many of my blog posts and musings. The Motherhood and Media blog has been a really important outlet and project for me over the past year, and I so appreciate you coming on this journey with me.

This is a quick update, however, to let you all know that this blog will probably not see many regular updates for a bit. I have tried to have approximately an average of one blog update a month or so, but now I expect to only update this blog if specific and unique inspiration strikes. I do not consider this blog a finished project (like my old Hobbit walking blog) or an abandoned project (like my old vampire movie review blog). Instead, this blog is simply going to be a bit more dormant while I embark on a new project: I'm working on writing a book series for young readers. 

As a reader of this blog, you obviously know that I have written non-fiction as both a hobby and within the context of academia, and many friends of mine know that I have written fiction for fun since I was a child. This new children's series, however, is the first time I really and seriously plan on working on a writing project with the goal of publishing. It feels a bit daunting, especially having just finished my first year as a new mom, but also very exciting.

I'm still in the very early stages of pre-writing, mostly consisting of brainstorming, outlining, and lots and lots of research. I made an exploratory survey (which you can still answer if you'd like to give me data!) to help me gain an understanding of parental and community views and needs, and I've started learning a lot about literacy levels and children's literature in general. I've also been engaging in various deep-dives into my inspiration source materials: the many interpretations of the tales of King Arthur and his knights. 

Just some of the books I've been referencing

As strange as it sounds as research for a children's book series, I sometimes have felt like I'm back in grad-school as I have ordered stacks of books and downloaded various translations of the same text for comparison... and even found niche translations of a Dutch manuscript that has a subtle variation from a French manuscript... and it is entirely possible I'm getting a little in the weeds in my background research.

Metaphorically: me in the weeds

That said, I'm very passionate and excited about where this all might lead. 

Feel free to reach out to me if you'd like to know more about this project, and I'll likely give occasional updates both here and on my social media(s). Many of you reading this are already friends with me on a personal basis, but I'll also be updating my more public/book-focused Instagram account with writing updates as the project progresses. 

Wish me well, folks! I'm sure I'll have more reflections on motherhood and popular media in the future... but, in the meantime, I'm off to spend some time with some knights and possibly fight some dragons. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Getting an "A" in baby class

-
Image
This past week, I belatedly watched the Hulu teen comedy Crush (2022). At the start of the movie, the protagonist Paige first develops a crush on her classmate A.J. when they pair up together for the "egg baby" project.  Watching this scene, I was immediately filled with nostalgia; I remember doing a similar project in fifth grade... though for the life of me I cannot remember if I had a partner or not. I do remember dutifully keeping my 'parenting' journal, which strangely feels like it parallels my modern (real) motherhood habit of tracking my baby's needs and habits in a brightly-colored app.  It was in high school, though, that the big "parenting preparation project" occurred. Rather than eggs or a bag of flour, in my high-school we simulated parenting through what I call the dreaded 'Robo-Baby.' 
Read more

'The Little Mermaid' and pregnancy allegory

-
Image
In celebration of Valentine's Day this year, my husband and I decided to watch a movie that had nothing at all to do with pregnancy: the 1984 romantic comedy Splash . Well, I should say that I decided. He merely told me that he'd never seen the movie, and I delightedly declared that we therefore needed to watch it immediately. But it really does have nothing to do with pregnancy... at least I thought it didn't when I suggested it.  As I watched this retelling of The Little Mermaid , however, I couldn't help but think that the story and all of its similar iterations actually could be viewed rather easily through the lens of a pregnancy metaphor.    Art credit : Karamfila,  @karamfila.s on Instagram
Read more

Freedom, men in pregnancy movies, and Momlife_comics

-
Image
The internet loves a good dogpile. Social media moves swiftly and furiously when a new "main character" has been announced, and it's crazy how a nearly anonymous someone becomes a talking point around the world. With all the posting about Ana Mardoll today or whoever is the new hot topic by the time this posts, it may be hard to remember that just days ago that target was... Momlife_comics.  Momlife_comics is an Instagram comic that became the target of rage, amusement, and mockery for about a day on Twitter. I honestly don't know how the recent attention started, and I've decided for the sake of my sanity not to find out (researching Twitter accounts seemed like a rather depressing idea of how to spend my time). I do know, though, that the reach of the attention was vast; my husband and I have shockingly different Twitter algorithms and follow very different people, but when I started talking to him about Twitter dogpiles and an online comic, he immediately said...
Read more