Dr. Bradley J. Sommer

Some of you know this, but I accepted the DoD's Deferred Resignation offer back in the Spring. As such, today is my last official day as a DoD Civilian and a Historian for the U.S. Army. Now, I'm just be another unemployed academic. I'll share more thoughts on this later.

Current Book Projects (words and est. % done):

Monograph: 109,671 words (99%)
Essay collection: 72,329 (90%)
Novel: 43,236 (40-50%)

Anyone have experience pitching articles, essays, or stories to magazines like McSweeney's, Harper's, or Rolling Stone? Not just those 3, but magazines like those ones in general. I have no experience pitching my work and could use some pointers.

Another 800ish words of new writing for my essay collection, plus edited another chapter of my history monograph. All in all, a successful and productive day of writing. I feel like I need to do more, though, which is a problem. I think I'm putting too much pressure on myself.

It's not quite done yet - I need to tinker with the last essay a bit - but my essay collection is almost done. Currently stands at 227 pages, will probably hit more like 230. Not too bad, I think.

We could sure or prevent so many diseases in this country if the political will existed.

Applied to 10 jobs just now. It's wild to admit this, but it's truly exhausting to apply for work in the AI-ified HR landscape of the post-pandemic economy. It's so much time and effort and you know that it's not going to amount to anything.

Edited another chapter of Book 1 and wrote another 720 words of Book 2. A fairly successful writing day, if I do say so myself.

A nice, crisp 700-ish new words for the essay collection (71k now) and then edited a chapter of the other book (34 pages). All in all, a successful day of writing by any definition.

The White Civility Council As the nation reckons with the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, there has been a notable trend from mainstream pundits and press outlets. They have tended to downplay or outright i...

All right, I wrote about it:

The Gen Xers and boomers out there might remember the “genial” fella who represented the “conservative” viewpoint on 60 Minutes’ point/counterpoint segment, James Kirkpatrick. In the 50s and 60s Kirkpatrick had been one of the most vocal and influential segregationists in Virginia.

Watching all these centrist pundits stress the “civility” of Charlie Kirk’s style without addressing the ugliness of his substance is giving me a renewed appreciation of how the civil, polite White Citizens’ Councils conned the same crowd into thinking they were distinct from the cruder Klan.

I made a post about how Charlie Kirk was most likely killed by a right winger and my MAGA cousin got mad and fast forward a bit and he literally threatened me and made comments about my unborn child.

Blocked him everywhere.

Cut toxic people from your life, even family.

Currently making the edits that will (hopefully) get my book accepted by the press I reached out to (they were really positive and really liked it) and I just want to restate for the record that writing is hard even for people who are good at it and do it professionally.

I learned long ago that I am the most productive with my writing early in the morning. From the time I get up (about 6am) until noon is when I get not just most of my writing done, but my best writing done. Once I hit that point, I am usually creatively done. How about you?

70,481 words of this essay collection. I think I can finish this before/around 80,000. That seems not just doable for me but also a good length for a first (non-history) book, yeah?

Spanish people protesting tourists and then having their tourism-dependent economy collapse is fucking wild and hilarious especially when you realize that the protests were really just xenophobia wrapped in a different package. FAFO all day, idiots.

Assistant Professor - Historian of Modern Continental Europe - HigherEdJobs Jobs in higher education. Faculty and administrative positions at colleges and universities. Updated daily. Free to job seekers.

Good opening at Stony Brook (Historian of Modern Continental Europe).
www.higheredjobs.com/details.cfm?...

I’ve dedicated so much of my life to the written word only to end up living in a timeline that is, at best, Fahrenheit451 adjacent, and at worst on its way there.

I too am Team Big Light, especially in certain situations.

The number one thing I’ve learned being married is that we don’t like the big light. I’m guessing a lot of you know what I’m talking about?

Got some really excellent feedback on, and optimism for, my book last week. They really like it. Some edits I need to make, mostly just mistakes on my part, but I think there's a real chance I can make this happen! If anyone needs me for the next 2 months, don't; I'll be writing.

Pitched an article to a magazine about a month and a half ago. Never heard back. Even if the answer is "No we're not interested at this time," I'd rather get a rejection email than nothing. It's deeply rude and unprofessional and demonstrates a real lack of empathy.

Actually very proud to announce that I am doing a thing: a new book series called "TV Matters" with Intellect! Television / media / pop culture scholars, take note and get in touch if you wanna write about TV! Please share far and wide.

Switching from Microsoft Word to Scrivener was the best decision I've made with my writing (that and my Freewrite). It's so much better. There's a learning curve, but once you get it it's vastly superior for large projects like books.

What did I miss?

Other than on Tuesday when I was busy most of the day, I've written at least 1,000 words every day this week.

Who knows if anything will come of it, but my writing has flourished since I took my deferred leave back in April.

Got some really excellent feedback on my historical monograph, and honestly, it's the most affirming feeling I've had about my work since I got my PhD. There's still work to do, but I think I might be able to get this book published (fingers crossed).

Wrote over 1,000 words today. The (essay) manuscript is about 60,000 words or so right now. The goal is about 75-80k. so we're making good progress. I think I can get this book done before the end of September. Then we move into edits and/or sending inquiries.

The Job of the Academic Market – AHA How much time does the academic job market take for the applicant? One historian adds up the hours.

Re-reading @rebeccawingo.bsky.social 's excellent AHA piece (www.historians.org/perspectives...) on the problems of the job market and I think that it needs to make the rounds again. It's deeply insightful on the problems of the academic market and I wish than more hiring people had listened to it.