What's Been Going on Around Here

Some things old, one thing new, nothing borrowed, a little blue

Dear Reader,

Doctor Waffle has decided to compile a small pamphlet — a modest compendium of her favorite essays — a choice selection of wise and witty sayings best fitted for our times — in short, A Book. She (that is, I) plan to put together a manuscript first and then stare at it and then worry over it and then tinker with it and then force my long-suffering friends to read it and then decide if it’s worth trying to publish it. If not, I will at least send it out as a tidy PDF to anyone who asks! At the very least, I will create needlepoint pillows from one or two of its pithiest lines.

In preparation for this august event, I’ve taken down a number of entries in the 52 Mini-Essays Project from my Substack so that (to a publisher’s jaundiced eye) there won’t be a perfect duplication of content. Apologies to all my friends who wake up at 2:00 a.m. with horrible insomnia and think to themselves, “I am going to make a mug of warm milk with some Scotch in it and then re-read Deanna’s essay about her favorite cat! That will do the trick.” If you are really desperate you can email me and I will send you a copy of the missing essay you long for. Otherwise, you can wait for the book.

To that end, I am also soliciting help for titles! (I posted a query about this a little while ago but I think I put it on the wrong area of Substack and no one saw it? I’m not sure. Substack now has a ridiculous number of ways to communicate—posts, podcasts, notes, chat, pneumatic tubes, carrier pigeons, and smoke signals—and I’m not sure which was the best method.) I would love to hear your ideas. Here are two of mine: The Reason for This Is Because and An Example of This Is When. Anyone who teaches college writing in any form will get the joke. (Another possibility is Since the Beginning of Time There Has Been This Book.) But those might be too esoteric and college professor-y. Please let me know if you have other suggestions.

And finally: now that the 52 Mini-Essays Project is over, I am planning to start a new weekly-ish (but let’s be real; it will probably be more like monthly-ish) short essay project entitled How the Nineteenth-Century Novel Can Save Your Life. Launch will probably be in a month or two. Watch this space!

Thank you for reading Doctor Waffle. You are the bomb.