Immersion in Publishing Internship: A New Beginning

Beginning

            At the beginning of my program here at Bay Path University, I was bound and determined to get off to a great start, and I feel that I succeeded in that regard. My first three semesters here, I was usually among the first to post in my classes, the quality of my work was good, even by my exacting standards, though there was room for improvement. Each term I earned an A in one class and an A- in the other, and each time I saw that A-, I felt motivated to try to improve it to an A the following semester, so I could reach the elusive 4.0 semester that I really wanted to achieve.

            Then came the fall term of this current academic year. That term was the greatest challenge to me personally and academically, as I had major life events impact me at every turn. First, we had to evacuate from my home in Florida because I was unsure whether my home would withstand the assault of Hurricane Irma. Fortunately, we sustained minor damage, but we lost power for more than a week, and being an online teacher and student, I needed the Internet, and the Internet required power. We took refuge first with friends in North Carolina, and when the storm headed in their direction, we left to go to Massachusetts, and stayed with my family. That through off my entire routine.

            Another challenge that I tried to manage was having gastric bypass surgery. I had been planning for this surgery for a year, and had hoped we could schedule it during the break between summer and fall classes, but the surgeon’s schedule and the impact of Irma resulted in having the surgery in October instead of May or June, as I had hoped.

            Another big change that occurred is that my son, who had been living with me full-time since age 3, decided he wanted to go live with his mother. At first, I fought it, because I could see lots of pitfalls in that plan, but eventually I succumbed to his requests, because it was causing a huge amount of turmoil in our home, so no one was happy.

            Finally, I also made a personal decision to run for Congress. In retrospect, I should not have run, and considered dropping from the race after this train wreck of a fall semester. In the end, I decided to stay in, because dropping from the race would make the entire experience in the fall pointless. The key, I concluded, was to manage my priorities, and put my classwork ahead of all else, and block out time each day to get things done.

            Such was my plan as I started my internship, and I have succeeded to a degree. The challenge I have experienced so far in my internship is that my supervisor, for lack of a better word, Kay, seems to be rethinking what she wants to do. So far, we have focused on getting her excellent book A Caravan of Brides included on a variety of Listopia lists pertaining to the Middle East in general, and Saudi Arabia in particular. Originally, she had planned on doing some Good Reads giveaways, but then she had second thoughts about the value of doing that, in relation to the expense of providing print copies of the book.

            I provided Kay with my experiences with Good Reads giveaways, and presented some other ways to do giveaway perhaps using electronic copies, instead of the more expensive bound books. She then had some author events going on down here in Florida ironically, and did not give her thoughts on my ideas.

            So, for now, I feel like I need to see where she wants to go, and head in that direction, with a clear plan moving forward. I do not say this in a critical way. It has just been different than I expected or hoped to have when the semester started.