Hey, since we're all getting sloshed and not paying attention to the normal rules about what is and is not an appropriate topic of conversation here on the Forge, I thought I'd post a little piece of news that crossed my desk literally in the last half hour.

After a long, agonizing process of getting a review, a press, a reviewer, another reviewer, and everything else (it's taken since Jan. 2003), I finally got remarks back from a distinguished reviewer about my current book project. This is an academic book, incidentally, so the review process determines basically whether the book will be published by a given press.

The result:
Cornell University Press does indeed want the book, though we're not quite ready to hash out contract details.

Basically the reviewer, though certainly tough and incisive, was extremely positive about the (partial) book manuscript. My editor now can feel confident that we're going to move forward. Probably by mid-summer, then, I should have a contract from a VERY distinguished press for a new book. Which should, if all goes very well, be in print by about Nov. 2006. (Yes, it does take a long time, and I only have 1/3 of it written anyway.)

Those of you who have touched on the academic world have some sense of what this means (in short, if I could ever get a tenure-track job, I can have tenure more or less for the asking, since the first book is out as of this past September). Those of you in the academic world, I expect you to respond with the appropriate and traditional combination of politely effusive congratulations and just-below-the-surface seething envy. :>

Yee fuckin' ha!

(convenient that this came in before the Birthday forum ended, no?)

Chris -

Congratulations - that's great! I am acutely aware of how much this kind of thing can mean for one's career. Keep up the good work! I admit that I didn't realize that academic presses gave book contracts in advance like that. Perhaps this varies from field to field?

Congrats!

I'm not an acedemic, but I am a professional writer. A book deal is a big self-esteem/career boost in my line of work as well.

Out of curiosity, what's the subject of your book?

Hey, great news. Can you talk about the book?

Congratulations, Chris! That's excellent. And Cornell U Press is a great get!

I take my manuscript on the book trail next academic year. Just have to finish writing it first.

Rob

Effusive politeness? Check.
Seething envy? Check.

First off:

Sean, academic presses do indeed do preliminary contracts. However, they don't do them for unpublished authors, pretty much ever. An exception is if a book is on a subject that will clearly sell very well (such as a book on Al Qaeda which the person was researching in the late 90's and had nearly completed on 9/11), but that's very rare. Once you have a book out, however, you can make a stab at it. Still, it's not all that common until you have two or three books. The point is that the press needs to be sure that the book will actually happen in reasonable time, and be good.

As to the book....

Well, it's called Magic in Theory and Practice, a title I'm stealing mostly from Aleister Crowley (who spelled it "Magick") and partly also from Catherine Bell's Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice.

Basically it's a set of six tightly linked essays on magic, occultism, various kinds of critical theory, methodology, and so on. In some ways, what I'm trying to do is simultaneously to kick some ass about the craptacular ways scholars have been dealing with magic and occultism, and also in a sense to lay down a new ground for interdisciplinary work on the subject.

Topics covered on the occult side include:
Hermes Trismegistus, ley-lines, Giordano Bruno, fangshi [ancient Chinese magicians], John Dee, Athanasius Kircher, Tarot cards, Aleister Crowley, and probably some other stuff.

Topics on the theory/method side include:
Mircea Eliade, morphology and comparison, Jonathan Z. Smith, Frances Yates, semiotic logic, ritual (esp. Bell), Levi-Strauss, collection, W. Benjamin, postcolonial studies, Derrida, Manfred Frank, and some other bits here and there.

All stirred together in an unholy union. Should be fun; the trick is to keep it from being impenetrable. :)

For those who care, my first book is a very in-depth analysis of Cornelius Agrippa's Occult Philosophy, something that there hasn't been up to now at all. If that means something to you, you know whether you want to shell out $87 for it.

Wheee! <sorry, just skipping>

Congratulations!

And I gather that Yee F'ing Ha is a Chinese theorist whose ideas you'll be evaluating in the book?

- Walt

Very cool stuff, Chris.

Also, thanks for the heads-up on publishing practices. I'm the sort of person who finishes MSs before shopping them anyway, but it's good to know that I can get some 'cred' from past publications if I need it.

That sounds like a cool book!

I'm also glad of the clarification of your other book. When I saw a reference to Agrippa in a previous post, I assumed you meant the late renaissance fencing master. :-)

Congratulations! -bastard-

Actually, it's good to see that anyone in Religious Studies (that is your field, isn't it? I'm guessing from the Grimes, Jonathan Z, et al. references) / Academia is dealing with the occult in a serious manner. The few books I've seen and read on the phenomenon have been mostly cr@p.

There's a point where just discussing what people do is not enough / pointless, and it needs to be addressed in theoretical terms, as to what it accomplishes / means and why.

I'll have to look up your book on Agrippa, though it will be a while before I can fork out $87 for a book.

A.

Congratulations, Chris, it actually sounds like something I'd pick up and read. Your brief description also brings back memories of Ioan Culianu.

Julie

Hey, magic...that can be related to roleplaying, easy.

So when it becomes available be sure to give a shout out down in Publishing or something.

No doubt I'll want a copy.

It sounds like a lot of carefully researched work-- should be interesting. I hope that it's interesting to write as well. Congratulations!

Many thanks, all.

taalyn: Total agreement. You betcha.

julie: Unfortunately, I never got to take a class with Couliano, as he was murdered before I really got into the subject. but more or less every faculty member I ever talked to while I was at Chicago asked if I'd known him. So, yes, in some respects parallel tracks. But don't count on my work looking much like his: we changed cars somewhere down the railway.

Congratulations, Chris. That's very cool.

Rich

Congrats - and seething envy. (My dissertation defence has just been scheduled - for late September...!)

Congratulations!

Good luck, James.

A word of advice. Once you have handed in the manuscript that the profs will examine for the defense, there is nothing more you can do. This isn't your exams; you already know the thing inside-out and backwards. As soon as you hand it in, get drunk, or go exercise heavily, or get stoned, or game a whole lot, or all of the above: stop thinking about it. There is nothing you can do. The night before the defense, have a good meal and go to sleep early. You'll have plenty of time to agonize over breakfast.

If you follow this plan, a defense can be fun. You have a certain number of world-class experts sitting around talking about you and your work, and you know more about it than they do (I promise -- that's what a dissertation is). How can you lose, if you've got some energy and haven't been fretting yourself into a wreck? Trust me, it can be fun. Assume that it will be, and when somebody asks a hostile question, ask yourself if maybe it wasn't meant to be hostile. Lots of academics are seriously deprived in the social-graces department. And if it really was hostile, treat it gracefully; everyone else in the room is wincing internally at how obnoxious this guy is being, and will be very impressed when you beat him in tact and maturity.

Be cool -- you're the world's leading expert. You can afford it.

Thanks, Chris. :)

That is pretty much the attitude I have; I took it into my MA defence and it served me well there, too. (I sent in the dissertation in early March; they also had an awful time finding people to examine me & one of them has an awful schedule.... Long story. In the meantime, there's Paying The Rent work to do.... :-/ )

Go Chris, it's your birthday, it's your birthday!

Or, rather it's the Forge's (and Luke's) but...

*goes off muttering about his failing English skills*

yrs--
--Ben

P.S. In all seriousness, sounds like a great book about a topic that needs to be addressed more. I will certainly be checking it out when it is printed, although it may be through pressuring a library and not through my own pocketbook.

Actually, if it comes out from Cornell there will probably be a paperback edition within a year or two, if they don't do paperback from the start, and that's going to be something like $30 tops. The first book is a technical monograph with a European publisher, so no wonder it costs a fortune.

Wow! Mabuhay, Chris! Nice going, man.

- W.

yeah, ok, I'll admit I'm jealous. (and bad at hiding it ;) Congratulations!!

Right on. You are the scholar who wins.

Go Chris! That sounds like a tasty book, and an even tastier contract. Definitely let us know when it hits the presses.

(and yes, my gills are a bit tinged with green :)

--Emily

clehrich wrote:
Those of you who have touched on the academic world have some sense of what this means (in short, if I could ever get a tenure-track job, I can have tenure more or less for the asking, since the first book is out as of this past September). Those of you in the academic world, I expect you to respond with the appropriate and traditional combination of politely effusive congratulations and just-below-the-surface seething envy. :>

I got to have a look at your first book at the RSA on the weekend--they had it front and center at the Brill table in the book room--and it looked good from the few mintues I spent with it. Now I'll just have to go poke the library to make sure they get it. But congratulations on the new one.

Piers