New structure... new domains...

First of all, thank you to those who pledged support to the PhD last month. We didn't hit targets so I didn't collect any money however :(

Over $300 was pledged, which would certainly help pay for a few research trips to Dublin, or a day or two of work in London! A couple of peeps have donated directly, and you still can - just use the donate button on the blog to the right, or drop me a line by email if you want to send cheque or other method of payment. I'm still desperately in need of finance to keep going, and juggling cash is getting harder and harder. Why can't I find a sponsor?!

On to other things...

I've restructured the PhD project this week, which is helpful. Waiting for feedback from my supervisor, but have bullet pointed the main chronology and the areas I want to look at and topics for discussion (as well as some of my theories). The emphasis is much more on the 1930s and 40s now but should still be taking in material from 1911 through 1966 and a chapter on the present day. Rather than regurgitate old material I'm trying to incorporate as much of the new material I've found so far as possible. Is certainly a challenge but I'm fairly hopeful - gives the project more meaning. I'm just hoping I can find the right linking devices as the piece comes together.

As part of that I've decided to try and write a couple of articles with a view to journal submissions, and then expand them for the thesis. The first is something of a revisionist approach to Hammer history which should challenge a few expectations. The second will be an examination of some of the orphaned films - Exclusive/Hammer films which have been forgotten. I have a list of something like a dozen so far which I'm 75 - 95% certain are Hammer/Exclusive films, but which have gone unacknowledged for years.

I'll let you know how I get on... and with some more detail.

Been spending a fair bit on books lately too - can't even indulge in material for pleasure. Nine out of ten purchases are directly linked to the PhD at the moment. Expensive, but is too difficult to get down to Dublin and raid Trinity Library, or I find other material which needs constant use. I'm writing to people I can find who might be able to shed light on material too - trying to secure data, leads and interviews. Painfully slow process.

As for new domains - well, I've now got several domain names bought for use on the resulting research website(s). You'll already know about www.exclusivefilms.co.uk (sorry folks, nothing really there yet), but I've picked up a couple of others too rather than let them go to waste. I hope to be able to build a real collaborative information source through the PhD, but you'll have to wait a while yet before I can start publishing the content. The problem with these sorts of projects is that things need to be published the right way if you want your work to be counted and accredited. One or two might even hold until the post-doc project. Yup. I already know what that should be, and if feeds straight into this one :)

Back to the grindstone. More letters to write, and books to read and articles to prep.

Publish publish publish

I've heard it said so many times, as I'm sure any of you working on PhDs or similar first steps to academia, that it becomes something of a mantra and a frightening reminder that you always need to be working with a wider audience in mind.

I'm about eight months into my formal work on the project now, and gathering together my plans for the summer for research. More archival work beckons, and I'm sure by the end of it I'll regret having ever started. Trying to put everything into some sort of order let alone the criticism needed, takes some work.

For most of us, adapting our work for conference papers, and journal publications is a way of structuring our research and aiding the writing of huge chunks of the thesis - at least I think I'm right in that. Publications early on and during the thesis work probably do more favours than anything else when it comes to the dreaded job applications. I'm acutely aware of all of this right now - my girlfriend is in the final stages of her PhD and so the talk of job prospects is a regular topic at home.

So far I've not anything published since the start of the PhD, bar a couple of (largely) unrelated magazine pieces, and one article on Exclusive for the official Hammer site. I've been asked to put in papers to a couple of conferences and trying to come up with a couple of ideas now, which is easier said than done (I don't want to shoehorn my project so it fits with the brief of one).

On a possibly slightly more positive note I've been planning a reference book to go alongside the research, which I'll pitch once I've a bit more done. Some of you will be aware I'm also still finishing off my book on Hammer Films which was contracted long before I started my PhD. I've also been approached about editing another book, which if it happens should be quite interesting. I've got the time set aside in my schedule to do it, and am discussing another book with publishers at the moment. Early days and none might happen, but I think its important to think of these things this early on in the project. None are directly related to the Exclusive project, but there is a connection to be found in each.

How does everyone else cope with article submissions etc.? I'm very cautious about putting my work out there at the moment. I've been burnt before with a publication project, which has kept me away from certain areas in the interim....