Waiting is the hardest part...so don't wait.

I'm waiting on an acceptance (or rejection) from a Chicago literary magazine on a submission I sent out not long ago. I was lucky enough to meet and sit down with one of the editors and the time we spent discussing one of my stories was an absolute treat.

Not often enough, as writers, are we able to sit down with a professional editor for direct one-on-one consultation. It's extremely difficult to get published and I think writer's need to see their work through the eyes of the people they send it to for submissions. In the end, though, the story is the writer's and if editors want to make drastic changes or flat-out reject it for publication at their magazines then there are other places to shop it around. That is, however, only if the submission has some merit and a level of talent and hard work poured into it. Bad writing is seldom published by good magazines. That said, here I wait to find out if I have what it takes to make it onto the list of those that can call themselves published writers.

As the title of today's Blog states, I'm not just waiting. There is work behind-the-scenes which keeps me from losing my mind on the possibilities of being published or rejected. "A watched pot never boils." While the manuscripts I have 'out' are going under an editor's microscope, I am working on a new batch of stories to be submitted next week. I figure the best way to keep from thinking about it too much is to keep the ball rolling.

Perhaps by my next Blog I will have an answer to the question of whether or not I've had my first major publishing credit, perhaps not. In the mean time, though, I will be busy putting more of my work out there. I know practice and determination are two key elements to being published and the busier I am the better I feel about the work I do. Besides, working beats waiting.

Golfing Weather

Well, the sun has come out of hibernation and the air is a little warmer. Friends are starting the golfing season off right as I prepare to go to class. Sacrifices.

Still waiting on two rejections/acceptances from an anthology overseas. Other than that, the semester is winding down and the work is piling up. No rest for the wicked.

I should be back soon with another update. I'll keep you posted.

Day 1

Well, I guess I've just entered the technological age. "One small step for me, one giant laugh from the rest of the planet." I'm new to the Blogosphere and, so far, it seems fairly painless.

I'm a senior in a Chicago Liberal Arts college. I'm enrolled in the college's BFA program in Fiction Writing. By this time next year, I'll be fighting off federal loan payments and sweating over the revision of my first novel. That is if all goes as planned. So far, I'm on schedule.

The title of this blog, "Scribbles in the Margins," is how I hope to treat this. I want to use this space to make notes, jot down ideas, share my acceptances for publication and my numerous rejections. I also see it as a way to share some of the hurdles I face on the road to writing and publishing fiction stories and novels for a living. I understand that few pull it off, but I'm hopeful, hard-working and not without a little talent, so I hear.

Wish me a little luck and I hope to see some hits in the next few weeks.