My First Publication!

A week ago, just as I was finalizing last week’s blog post, I received an email letting me know that a magazine wanted to publish a short piece I had submitted to them. Oh? They do? Oh! Oh my. My that feels good. It has taken me some time, some grief, and lots of effort. But alright. Here we go. My first publication under my belt. I’m trying to soak up these good feelings.

Photograph of a path through a forest at sunset. — *There are a couple of little wooded islands connected to campus via bridges. We took a walk out to them last night, and here’s looking back at the sunset just over the rise.*

With publication, I understand, comes a responsibility and a release, and I think here of Anne Bradstreet’s poem that is newly sown with meaning for me now, “The Author to Her Book”. I can’t fiddle with the word choice anymore. I can’t revise and chop. I also can’t lean over a reader’s shoulder and tell them what I meant to say. Readers create meaning as much as writers do, and if readers interpret what I have written differently than I intend–I have to be okay with that.

Photograph of a waterscape at sunset with a small boat. — *In the right half of this one, there’s an unusual boat going by. We thought it might be a fishing boat or a research boat of some kind.*

Yesterday I spoke with my sister and her new husband. It was so unexpected, so thoughtful, a bit of a colliding of the worlds of my life: they wanted to go through the story with me each paragraph, tell me what they thought, and ask me questions. I blushed. I stammered a bit in my answers. And indeed, what was so very clear in my own mind about the story–the correspondence of each metaphor, the theme of the whole–they interpreted in their own ways. They had some really thoughtful questions. It was a moving experience.

I think there’s also a good reminder for the soul here. I say to students every chance I get, everyone has something in their heart worth sharing, including you. Okay. It’s easier to say to other people. But I want to remind myself: this piece they’re publishing is something reasonably close to my heart. It’s born not so much of following good writing advice, rather listening to myself. I’ll try to keep doing that.

Photograph of a forest with mountains beyond. — *In the forest.*

This long journey is, I think, still really at its start. I’ll be able to mention a publication in my cover letters now. I’ll be perhaps a bit more inured against the rejections that I’m sure will still keep coming in a deluge. I imagine both these will be helpful. But I’m doing all this to write and share and explore the universe, which I have not figured out. I’ll keep going.

If you would like to read the piece, it’s here: Pif Magazine‘s July 2020 issue. My piece is called “Parable of the Earth’s Crust.” You can read issues online for free, and if you like Pif, there’s a monthly Kindle subscription too.

Thanks for stopping by, and with love,
Jimmy