It had been a few days since my last post and, while I have a few half-finished posts that may be of interest, I thought now would be a good time for a quick update from yours truly. As you may have noticed blog posts have not been as frequent from other sources, primarily because I have been working on some more in-depth, magazine length pieces. Unfortunately, I recently had one turned down for a national magazine so I have shifted focus to writing an article that – not necessarily in tune with my book or the mainly sports focus of the site – discusses the future of the Catholic Church in Ireland. This is more of a passion project and one where I have some good sources, so my hope is that I can write a few thousand words and determine where to submit it for publication.
As for the new book, the introduction is almost written. While I am not necessarily a believer in linear writing for a book, I thought that with this book and this topic, I needed to structure myself. The introduction lays out more of the why of the book than the where or how, which again with the unique topic is necessary. When I was writing it over the past few days, I found myself really getting lost in the material and enjoying what I was writing, to the point that I would go for an hour, stop, and see a thousand words on the page. More details to come, but Sunday’s are my book work days so I look forward to more work on the introduction tomorrow. Then it is on to the actual research…
I have to confess, at this point I had hoped to have had more manuscripts lined up for publication or at least under consideration. Truthfully, the time needed to dedicate to writing in-depth articles on nuanced topics, and balancing that with the incredible blogging opportunities I have with sites like World Soccer Talk, has been a challenge. The time needed to do everything is hard to find, even when cutting out things like writing instead of playing XBox or reading another chapter of a great book. So the past three months have been a learning experience, and we’ll see where the next three take me. Hopefully they will produce some quality reading for my followers.
I’ll close with a note about that – if you or your blog follow this site, thank you. For the most part I try to return the favor and I’ve learned a ton from each of you. Whether it’s about writing or other aspects of life (running especially), your work inspires mine, so I thank you.
Now back to work, that Ireland article will not write itself.
Robert Hay Jr. 