An Article Acceptance, of Sorts.

Okay, I might've been impatient to get some articles published. And instead of following the normal guidelines of submitting 3-6 months in advance, I may have sent out time-sensitive articles last week to be published in...three weeks (April). Wow, that looks much worse in writing than it sounded in my head.

I suppose the (lack of) response speaks for itself: 31 submissions and not a bite. Until I opened my inbox this morning, and there it was. An editor's reply! Whenever editors have contacted me in the past, it was because they were interested in an article, so I was already thinking about how great it would be to record my 1st published article for 2012 as I opened the email.

Love your article. Not the usual stuff, and lots of interesting ideas.

Who hoo! And then:

Sorry to say, it's a little too late for us in 2012, but I'd love to hold onto it for use in 2013. I've filed it away and will be in touch next year. Thanks so much.

Em.

I hope I'm not sounding ungrateful here - it's not that I'm not happy to get an acceptance, a nice compliment and even an emailed response when the editor could've just let it go and contacted me next year. It's just-

2013?

Looks like Somebody out there thinks I need to learn a lesson. And I guess an exercise in patience is better than no exercise at all, although my expanding lovehandles might disagree.

In the meantime, I've added yet another section to the blog, "Submission Reminders" and have revisited my google calendar alerts. This way I can remind myself to send out articles at the right time, and also follow up with editors closer to publication dates, in situations like this one.

With all of these writing lists and schedules I've been accumulating, I'm feeling more like my old pre-mom writing self. If only I weren't laying on my sofa in fuzzy pink socks next to my daughter's purple balloon.