Serenity Now!

I haven’t written on either of my blogs lately because I’ve been, well, writing. Let me explain:

Some of you know that I recently wrote and submitted an article to Mothering magazine. (If you didn’t, now you do.) Last Thursday, I received the rejection letter via e-mail, which was how I had been communicating with the magazine. Here’s what they sent me:

Dear Kim,

Thank you so much for thinking of Mothering. We receive so many 
wonderful submissions, and have so few slots, that we are often 
forced to turn away very good material. This is one of those times. I 
wish you the best of luck placing your work in another publication.

Best Wishes,
Candace

 I was thrilled-until it was pointed out to me by some other writers/editors in the Writer’s Digest forum, where I’ve been an active member for some time, that this is standard ‘boiler-plate’ rejection. Oh dear.

I work with a professional editor who basically told me the article was crap when I first wrote it, but since I had already submitted it to the magazine, there was nothing I could do. So I waited. Three weeks after sending in the article, I received the e-mail from the magazine saying ‘thanks, but no thanks’.

I rewrote the article and sent it back to my editor. I was hopeful. I found out there’s no reason for hope when it comes to editors. I have never seen a manuscript with so much red on it. The poor thing looked like it was bleeding. After fuming and pacing around all pissed off, I sat down and carefully REwrote the piece. It took me three hours to make the necessary changes, answer her questions and add my own comments. I saved it and started composing my reply e-mail. Thank God I double checked the manuscript before attaching it, because I realized I had NOT saved it. All that work down the drain! I don’t know what happened, I just know that when I opened the document again, it was the same as before the rewrite. (Double oh dear. In fact, oh s%&t! Sometimes I’m such a spaz.)

I RE-rewrote the article, saved it again (and again, and again…) double checked that it was saved, and sent it back to her. I’m waiting for her response. I’m trying to be optimistic, but my ego has taken quite a beating in the past few days, so we’ll see.

I hate editors.