Mile Marker #4: The Waiting Game

In which: Maggie waxes philosophical (philosophic?) about submission processing and laughs because they should know how this works by now.

So, apparently I forgot how nail-biting it is waiting to hear back on a submission. My friend introduced me to The Submission Grinder which is equal parts assuaging my anxiety and freaking me out even more. What’s hilarious here is back when I submitted regularly, I was fully used to waiting 6+ months for submission turnarounds. Now, simply because my friend is so excited/nervous about her submission, I’m that person obsessively refreshing their email inbox like they somehow missed the important email they’ve been looking for since Wednesday.

C’mon, dorkimus rex. You know better.

An excellent benefit I have here is that the submission window for this particular anthology closes today, and they’re aiming for October publication, so I know I’ll hear back from them within the next six weeks, likely even sooner. I’m just excited. It’s really nice to be submitting again :)

Even if I don’t get this placement (fingers and toes and tentacles crossed), I feel like I’ve learned something new about submissions. This is the first time I’ve written a short story for a prompt rather than trying to find places to make a pre-written story stick. So, the moral here is to write to prompts more often because I had so much fun with this project. It’s been a while since I’ve sat giggling over my keyboard like some kind of pirate ratcatcher (TBH, I don’t know what that is but I assume they would giggle).

Regardless it’s just nice to be in the game! Everything feels more real lately, in terms of my professional writing. Maybe it’s finally busting out the ol’ pen name or just feeling like I’ve got a lot to look forward to for the rest of the year. I’ve churned out more than 100,000 words in a little over six months, and that’s absolutely nothing to sneeze at.

(Which reminds me: I’m finally starting to get over this cold. It’s still a lingering cough but I’m hoping it goes away soon.)

Anywhomst, now that I’m back from my job interview and have had some time to decompress, it’s time to jump headfirst into client work. I’m glad it’s Friday—and even though I’m pet sitting for my sister again all weekend, at least this time I don’t have a twenty-hour client project breathing down my neck.

Til next time,
Mags