Manic Production Mode
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In one morning, I submit to NOON Annual, Harper’s, The Sun, Conjunction, Smokelong Quarterly, Keyhole Magazine, Red Rock Review, and Vestal Review.
I check my trusty hand-written log (who needs Excel?) for pending submissions and see that any time now I should hear from Naval Institute Press, Graywolf Press, Crazy Horse Fiction Prize, Tupelo Press, Kansas City Voices, Solstice Quarterly, Electric Literature, and Southeast Review. And further out, I should have news from Ars Medica, Bellevue Literary Review, Black Warrior Review, and The Ledge Fiction Contest.
I have nine fellowship, professorship, or grant applications pending, with responses promised between May and the end of July. I check AWP eLink for new postings and find 4 professorships I meet the minimum qualifications for.
That’s when I come up short—
I don’t want to teach full time. I don’t even want to teach part time unless it’s with the accolades of a fellowship or in a truly beautiful place that I want to live. This is something I’ve known all along (the exception being a truly exciting institution, such as my alma mater). I read the job postings over again and try to sweeten the descriptions, but I can’t even fool myself. Oklahoma? A south Texas community college? A 4/4 course load? Not for me. I’d rather stay on the road and residency hop than do that.
That’s right. I’d rather keep on moving. Good to know that now, I guess, on the cusp of all this change. I close the AWP eLink site and switch into manuscript mode.
By mid-afternoon I’ve sent over 80 emails and Facebook messages to writers I respect. My contacts run the gamut—from my best grad school buddies to famous authors I’ve never even met but am “friends” with through the social networking sight. Within two hours I have over 25 responses and begin tallying a growing list of agents, contacts, and press/publisher suggestions.
I’m simultaneously buzzed and exhausted, and that’s not all. There’s still the Osama bin Laden news to catch up on (this does, in fact, date my entire Personae of War manuscript) and the last story about Kabul Stadium to finish drafting. Back to work!
