Print Pubs: The Writing's On The Wall (Unfortunately, Not Where Everyone Can See It Yet).

Well, tomorrow I'll learn the fate of our two magazines.  Turns out there was quite the uproar from a number of other departments when my department (and by "my department," I mean "I") announced that we had been told the magazines would have to go online-only after the (upcoming) January issues.  There was enough of an uproar, actually, to prompt a review of the proposal at the annual board meeting -- which took place this past Friday.

So, the decision's been made...we just don't know what it is yet. 

Quantum physics, anyone?  Every possible outcome still exists...at least from my point of view.  Just sayin'....

Miss One Day of Work, and the Publications Department Goes Up in (Digital) Smoke.

Have been checking work email this morning, and saw that my boss had called a meeting for 9:30 am -- somewhat random; definitely out of the ordinary.  So, I emailed one of my colleagues and asked for an update.

Apparently, the upcoming issues of both of our print magazines will be our last.  After this, it all goes online.

This is HUGE, a major move for our department.  And for me?  I think a good thing.  No more print deadlines.  I'm not sure how things ultimately will shake out, but I do think that this will mean that we are able to publish a far greater number of articles/stories/features/news items on the Web.

Wow.

Forecast: 20 Percent Chance of Writing.

So, I'm working from home today.  Which is not so much to say that I'm being paid to perform my job whilst sitting in my bed with sleeping kitties lying around and keeping my feet warm, as it is to say I'm taking a vacation day but working on said day because there still are deadlines and I still must make them.

I have a number of interesting assignments due in the next week: two research feature stories, a summary of recent (single-disease specific) research for one of the magazines, and a more generalized summary of recent (multi-disease) research that will be made into a glossy, photo-filled fundraising "update" for a specific target audience (big donors).  There are several other things I'm working on -- online news items, publicity for a new round of grants and anything else research-wise that should happen to fall out of publication-land and demand my immediate attention.

I have off every Tuesday through the end of the year because I had to burn up my remaining 2011 vacation days.  This will be my third, so far.  Unfortunately, though I'd planned to use some of this time to draft some of the novel (need a working title, so that I won't have to keep referring to it as "the novel"), this hasn't happened.  Or, you know, I'd have reported it here.

Anyway, I plan to get one of the aforementioned major work projects finished and emailed in to my boss today.  It shouldn't take all that long, but then I have to pick up the boys after school and take them to the doctor's office for their check-ups.  Then, of course, Sammy has soccer tonight.  And then there's dinner, at least one load of laundry, getting the boys ready for school tomorrow (and me for work) and everyone into bed.

Hopefully I can squeeze a little bit of writing in, even if I have to do it longhand in a journal while at Sammy's practice.  I'm going to place the odds of that happening at around 20 percent.  And that's probably far too generous.