Rejection. 29 April 2008

So…remember a few weeks ago I said a new “big goal” was to submit to the online nonfiction journal BREVITY before the end of May?  Well I did it!  The deadline for submissions before summer was actually April 15…cheeky magazine and your clever deadlines…I got it in on time, and then waited patiently.  Just yesterday I got a response via e-mail.  These folks are an electronic journal and they don’t mess around. You submit via email, they respond via email.  Subject line:   “re: submission”.

 

Dear Ms. Jenkins,

Thank you very much for your recent submission to BREVITY.  We are shocked (though pleased, as well) by the number and quality of submissions we are receiving these days, and the calls are becoming more, and more difficult.

I am sorry to say that we will not be able to use your essay, but we appreciate your sending it for our consideration.

Good luck with your writing.

Rachael Peckham
Managing Editor

 

And there you have it.  My first rejection from a “real” literary magazine.  And I couldn’t be more thrilled. (Could be slightly more thrilled, of course.  But rejection is good.  Makes you grow, yadda yadda. Right?)  And still I’m glad that I followed through and gave it a try.  I’m inspired to keep on trying.  Just today I discovered SMITH magazine.  Six-word memoirs. Are you kidding me?! I’m in love.

And besides…maybe I don’t want to be published in a journal that adds unnecessary commas to common phrases like “more and more”.  (Ok I admit that was petty. But I was rejected.  Let me be a little bitter.)

 

What a Lentdown 19 February 2008

Sad story: the title of this post is probably the most creative thing I’ve written all week.

(Probably not true. I’ve written a lot in recent days, in e-mails to myself, on napkins (believe the cliche!), in my notebook that’s always with me, in random notepad files I open on my mac desktop in hopes someday they’ll develop into something more than notes…)

But who has the TIME to complete anything?!  ADULT life is so much busier than I ever imagined. (I remember reading articles in Mom’s “mom magazines”* about scheduling time to pluck eyebrows, pay bills. It seemed so silly to my little-kid self, who had nothing better to do than go to school and develop elaborate social lives for her toys. And oh the books I could read! The time to doodle!) I’m even writing this at my desk, still at work.

I have, in the midst of the busy, set another BIG GOAL for myself. And I feel that making it public will make me stick with it.  I’m taking Creative Writing II: Nonfiction this semester, and we’ve read some essays out of Brevity, a journal of short-short nonfiction.  I am going to submit something this semester, and be a true (term I’ve stolen from the Brevity page) “nonfictionist”. 

Delicious new goal. I’m excited. Maybe I’ll submit 13.1.

 …

*A “mom magazine” is a publication that can be purchased at a Wal-Mart checkout counter, which features–among other things–photos of seasonally themed cupcakes and tips on sensible handbag purchases, appealing to moms everywhere.  See: Woman’s Day, Woman’s World, Family Circle.

The Blog is Back 7 February 2008

02.06
Lent

It’s the first day of Lent (well, technically it’s the day after now…but I’m still writing. It still counts.) And this year I’ve given up “not writing”. Yup. Until Easter I’m getting back into good habits, so check back often. It’s going to be fun.

I realize I could’ve given up any number of things: TV, soda, facebook.
But I barely watch TV anymore, and soon as I give it up, the writers strike will be over and I’ll miss Jim and Pam’s wedding or something spectacular like that.
I also rarely drink soda, but when I do it’s a nice boost in an otherwise stressful day. Or a necessity…you can’t go to Taco Bell and NOT order Baja Blast.
And facebook is the one way I keep in touch with many friends scattered all over the country…since I’m bad at phone calls and rarely write letters.
And I know lent is supposed to be about sacrifice, but I’m not even Catholic…so I don’t feel all that guilty. (ha. In more ways than one…)
So I’ve decided I’m giving up procrastinating. Seems kind of convoluted to say that I’m going to give up NOT doing things, but here I am with the p-word as maybe my most fatal flaw, and here’s a tool to help me deal with it. Thank you, ritual sacrifice!

So here I am. A new assignment. This time not attached to any external project. Just writing.

WRITING.

But where to begin? I can’t count the number of times over my month-long blog break that I said “I should blog about that!” and scribbled something down in my notebook or on a sticky note or the back of a receipt. (Sometimes while driving. (Writing is not safe.)) It seems unfair that there’s so much inspiration and only one ME to take it all in, decide what’s good, what’s worth keeping.

at any given moment my mind is swirling with ideas:
old people at walmart: endearing or sad
Movies I see, books I read
Coincidences and Conversations
Improv scenes
Quirky wisdom on local business marquees
The ups and downs of an ordinary workday
(and it’s my job to live in a residence hall. the stories I could tell.)
Beauty in the mundane: doing dishes, wrapping a gift
An obscure story or interview on CBS Sunday Morning or This American Life
Boys.
My family. Here alone are several novels.
etc.

See? My mind is a wide-open window, and the world is a dust-storm. And it’s my job as a writer to take in the dust and sift out the glitter, and glue it to a page, and hold it up proudly, saying, look what I made!
It’s no wonder I’m sometimes tired, and it feels easier just to ignore my mind.
And switch on the TV
Or drink a soda
Or hop on facebook
But not anymore. Not until Easter.

So come back. If this entry didn’t exhaust you, I think you’ll make it just fine.

the frankenstein stiffness has got to stop 19 October 2007

Friday October 19
I love fall break
9:47—10??
I don’t even know. I could barely run again today. More running/walking/running. But it was a beautiful day, and I stopped by Convey to talk to Jen and Sesha after seeing them drive by.

This was the week of best-run-ever, followed by worst-attempts-ever. I just need to pop the pain relievers a good half hour before running now. This broken-robot, Frankenstein stiffness has got to stop.

It was super windy today, and as I walked back around Wallace, in the too-good-to-be-true sunlight, I shut my eyes and flung my arms wide, imagining that this is what skydiving will feel like, only 100 times better.

Thinking today how I haven’t really kept up my academic side of this blog bargain. Sure I have been learning A LOT, but more through experience and asking questions. Not really researching or reading as much as I’d hoped. True, I still have over a month until the big race (42 days, 22 hours, 13 minutes according to my countdown widget. I love Macs), so that’s still enough time to read some articles, crack open some text books, and educate myself.

I have this ultimate fantasy of turning it all into a book, weaving in running and writing and relationships and all the research and the anecdotes and all that…

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, writing a book. That is my ultimate fantasy. I didn’t earn the name Sarah “Wildcat” Jenkins in high school for nothin’.*

So as not-thrilling as the run might have been, I did take myself down a new route through Jordan Valley, under the bridge, past the scrap metal storage place. Nice scenery. Nice memories of the field trip through the tunnels a few weeks ago. Nice imagining I knew how to weld and make funky sculpture from all the tons of scrap metal.
But right now I don’t need another hobby.

*I didn’t earn the name Sarah “Wildcat” Jenkins in high school.