It's been a month since my last post, a fairly large interval for me.  My disappearance from the blogosphere and twitterdom should not be taken as a sign of  lethargy.  Rather, I have been distracted by other work.  

First, and most importantly, I submitted the manuscript of my book to the publisher.  Woot!  I sent it off on September 1, and the weeks running up to that day were fairly hectic, filled with writing and editing.  But now it is off.  I'm not sure how long it will take to publish, but the press has a page-holder on their site for it: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Dao: Ancient Chinese Thought in Modern American Life.  The subtitle, you will notice, is the tag line of this blog.  The book, indeed, has grown out of this blog.  It is a more extended application of concepts drawn from Confucianism and Daoism to contemporary American social and ethical issues (abortion, gay marriage, end of life issues, etc.).  The title itself is a bit garish.  It was the editor's idea and perhaps it is snappy enough to catch the attention of potential readers.  But I can't really complain because I am, as my daughter will tartly attest, rather bad with titles, at least on my first two books.

I also expect it to come out with "Sam Crane" on the cover, not "George T."  There's a story in that, which can be told at another time…

No sooner had I submitted the book (and after a celebratory drink), then I had to immediately turn and take up my new administrative duties: I am now Chair of my department.  And beginnings of semesters are especially crazy for chairs of academic departments.  Lots of bureaucratic demands, lots of student questions, lots of meetings.  We have now completed our first week, and I think things will begin to settle into a familiar pattern for the rest of the academic year. The fact that we are searching two positions (one in international relations and one in political theory) will, however, take a good deal of my time in coming months.

So, this is just a quick check-in.  More posts to follow soon….

Oh, and we are thinking about what the cover of the book should look like.  Any ideas?