{"id":1248,"date":"2009-11-04T01:25:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-04T01:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1248"},"modified":"2009-11-04T01:25:00","modified_gmt":"2009-11-04T01:25:00","slug":"the-writing-life-pulls-off-the-siding-onto-the-main-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1248","title":{"rendered":"The Writing Life Pulls Off the Siding onto the Main Line"},"content":{"rendered":"

I think of it as my secret Chicago hideout: the “you have to know where to look” Metropolitan Lounge in Chicago’s Union Station. I’m not in town enough to justify a membership in the University Club<\/a>, even if their building does look like Batman should be perched on the parapet. (The main clause there was a joke, readers.)<\/p>\n

I’ve started mapping out what might be the next book after Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca And Paganism in America<\/a>\"\"<\/i>. For two years, I have been trying to get started on a different project, accumulating stacks of research material, but writing only lightweight paper on the topic.<\/p>\n

Maybe, to keep the railroad metaphor going, I was on the wrong track. (Wait, no, that is probably an animal-tracking metaphor.)  Now I feel a lot more energized, ready to kick some proposals around when I arrive at the American Academy of Religion meeting.<\/p>\n

If it goes, I will post some appeals for particular, specialized information here as a form of “crowd-sourcing.” <\/p>\n

It feels good to have some direction again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think of it as my secret Chicago hideout: the “you have to know where to look” Metropolitan Lounge in Chicago’s Union Station. I’m not in town enough to justify a membership in the University Club, even if their building does look like Batman should be perched on the parapet. (The main clause there was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-1248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-k8","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2537,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2537","url_meta":{"origin":1248,"position":0},"title":"Blogging: Why Build Somone Else’s Brand?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"There is some political name-calling in his post, but Stacy McCain does make one valid point about blogging. If you are going to work for free, why build someone else's reputation rather than your own? I know two people who were writing for The Huffington Post\u2014the site that owner Arianna\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"blogging\"","block_context":{"text":"blogging","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1284,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1284","url_meta":{"origin":1248,"position":1},"title":"Too Much Pagan Writing is Too Bland","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I wish Pagan writers would stop giving advice and writing bland how-to articles. A lot of what makes Pagan magazine publishing is its bias towards advice-giving. That and poor graphic design, in some cases.Look at Circle magazine, for example. Circle reminds me too much of the bland publications of cookie-cutter\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2275,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2275","url_meta":{"origin":1248,"position":2},"title":"This is not Good Academic Writing","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Contrary to what some people think, this is not good academic writing: The theory of [redacted] that have [sic] been presented in this paper [not that she actually, like, presented it ] could considered as plausible theoretical guesswork that could illuminate that presumed cognitive imaginative devices that led to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":850,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=850","url_meta":{"origin":1248,"position":3},"title":"Gallimaufry","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00b6 Here in Colorado, Rocky Mountain PBS' group of stations weights their offerings heavily toward programs like Lawrence Welk and Antiques Roadshow. When they really want to be cutting edge, such as during fund drives, they run a John Denver special.Having once been peripherally connected with the antiques trade, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"blogging\"","block_context":{"text":"blogging","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1285,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1285","url_meta":{"origin":1248,"position":4},"title":"Writing English as a First Language","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Some writing is bland because it does not take chances. Other writing is bland because of poor technique.William Zinsser deals with the second in this talk to international students in the Columbia University journalism school: \"Writing English as a Second Language.\"Actually, writing\u2014as opposed to speaking\u2014is a \"second language.\" That is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"writing\"","block_context":{"text":"writing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=writing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1126,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1126","url_meta":{"origin":1248,"position":5},"title":"Blogging in Fire Season","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"My days this week were split between book-editing, another writing project, and fire-fighting -- or worrying about fires.In late January I joined the little rural volunteer fire department, which seems in a way to embody what the Founders meant by \"militia\" back in the 18th century.M. and I also signed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"blogging\"","block_context":{"text":"blogging","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1248\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}