November 1st Updates
I suppose I usually just start writing by talking about the weather - it just gets me going. Today, November 1st is a cloudy 43 degree day with some light rain. Temperatures reached near 80 degrees this past Saturday but since then the temperature dropped and last night, All Hallows Eve, felt like an actual Fall day. I went for a run and nearly needed a long sleeve shirt and gloves. The neighborhood was strangely quiet other than the packs of trick or treaters heading to and fro. I ran an extra lap around the cemetery as the light receded and darkness covered the land by 630pm.
I want to stick to a weekly blog post here on the website, if only to check in with myself and see what I’ve accomplished, what’s on-going, and other news. Here’s some end of the month updates and a look at what I’ve got going on in November.
What am I reading?
I’m currently reading articles and trying to stay informed and educated about the Israel/Palestine conflict. This is a large issue that I don’t know much about. I let my subscription to the New Yorker end - I couldn’t keep up with the weekly issues! - but now I find that I miss their reporting. Sitting down and reading a longform article on important issues helps my understanding more than simply browsing on social media or on a news site. I picked up a newspaper a few weeks ago that I’m still working through. I’m reading the New York Times articles online and may sign up for another New Yorker subscription (digital, not print).
Last week I started reading a The Da Vinci Code paperback I found somewhere. I was looking for something easy to read, not wanting to get into anything too heavy. I’m not as enthralled by the novel or Brown’s writing as I have been in the past but I think I enjoy reading it because it’s kind of a palette cleanser, something I don’t have to think too much about while reading before bed.
I also just started reading Brooklyn’s Barren Island by Miriam Sicherman. My mom gave me this book as a gift a few years back and I suppose I’m finally ready to read it. As I’m considering attending an MA program, I’m asking questions like what do I really want to study, what am I really interested in? Sicherman attended an MA history program at Brooklyn College and her master’s thesis became the published book. She also teaches elementary school history. While I’m looking at MA programs, I’m also looking at people who have done work that I admire or am interested in to see their education and career trajectories - what did they study, what jobs/fields have they worked? These are questions I need to answer to figure out what kind of program I want to attend - do I want to focus on oral history or expand my education to archives and history?
I’m only a few pages into Sicherman’s book but it’s a fascinating and detailed look at the forgotten history of Barren Island. Today the island is located approximately where Floyd Bennet Field is as much of the island was filled in and connected to the mainland. From about 1850 to 1930 a community of about 1800 people at it’s height sprang up around the ‘nuisance industries’ located on the island which included garbage processing, dead animal rendering into fertilizer, and fish oil processing. The people, mostly African-Americans and European immigrants, performed essential tasks for the city but were mostly left to their own devices due to the island’s relative isolation. The book reads like a master’s thesis, incorporating several oral histories from former residents, newspaper articles and other historical books written about Jamaica Bay and the surrounding area.
I think I could also use this book as a topic or jumping off point for the writing samples I’ll need to submit as part of the MA program applications.
What am I working on?
Oral History
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been focused on oral history interviews and developing interview tips for future volunteers. The recent uptick in the number of interviews I’ve conducted lately has been beneficial for my own growth in the field as well as thinking more critically about what I want to do with oral history going forward.
Just to give perspective - since 2021 I’ve conducted 18 interviews:
2021 - 10 interviews
2022 - only 2 interviews [including Borough President Reynoso]
2023 - 6 interviews since August
So far I’m on track to conduct more interviews than previous years but this may not occur. Regardless, I’ve developed a number of future blog posts on oral history, interviews tips, lessons learned from new yorkers, and similar topics to publish to Substack.
Blogging, Essays, and fiction novel writing
At the beginning of the month, I was working towards wrapping up a blog post on Roadside Picnic. I haven’t completed this yet but it’s about 90% there. I’m still aiming to publish more blogs and essays to Substack in the future. A number of topics have sparked my interest including NYC history, parks, and local Bushwick/Ridgewood history. These also are connected to my interest in oral history. I also want to blog about journaling, how to write a newsletter, and other writing-related content.
Last month I also read the sci-fi classic War of the Worlds. This and Roadside Picnic are part of a group of sci-fi novels I picked up in September. The fiction novel I’ve been working on (mostly for fun) over the past three years may be turning into a sort of sci- fi novel - and I realized I havent read much sci-fi! Thus I wanted to read these books, and really get in there and understand them, study them and write about them, and share my thoughts on Substack.
In late September there was a period of about three weekends where I’d visit a Barnes & Noble cafe and just write for a few hours on this fiction novel. I haven’t written a word since then - I’ve been focused on other things BUT I’m still reading, watching and taking notes on anything that will inform this writing. In addition to Roadside Picnic and War of the Worlds I’ve listened to a few relevant podcasts and have been taking notes on History Channel’s Project Blue Book series, which is very informative for the novel I’m writing.
What are my goals for this month?
Looking over my notes for last month’s projects, I can see that I didn’t do much writing but brainstormed, outlined and took a lot of notes on future blog posts I want to publish to Substack. I’ve also been focused on oral history which is informing my writing on NYC history and related fields. I didn’t do any actual writing on my fiction novel project.
So for this month, I want to actually finish some essays and do some more fiction writing. To begin, I printed out a number of past blogs published here on my website, and some other stuff I’m outlining/brainstorming to adapt these into Substack blogs. Once completed, I’ll figure out a publishing schedule - perhaps I’ll wait until the new year.
In the meantime, I’ll carve out some time to write fiction! Usually I’ve found the end of the year, the holidays and the colder weather very inspiring. This project is more of a hobby than anything but also my longest ongoing project.
On the oral history front, I signed up to participate in a two-day mini intensive in mid-november. Perhaps I’ll get a better sense of what oral history is and what I hope to gain from it and hopefully a better idea of if I want to attend an oral history MA program.
I enjoy having a busy schedule, with work, interviews and plenty of writing, reading and note-taking to fill the gaps. So here’s to another month of exciting possibilities.
