Robin Layne's Blog: From the Red, Read Robin - Posts Tagged "stealing-time"
Stealing Time has Accepted My Story!
These days I have been staying up really late at night, so late it's early, as they say, to the point that someone said today that I'm a vampire. I deny it; I may write about vampires, but I have no fangs, don't bite people, and don't drink blood. I just don't usually get tired in the evenings. When it's late, however, I usually don't do any work, either--which may be why my system insists on staying up: It likes the game playing, the relaxation, and the chatting with friends on Facebook. It was typical yesterday morning that I was slowing down at 2 and looked at my email before I was about to shut down my computer. But this time, lo, a miracle! An fellow Robin (Jennings, I think it's safe to say) was apparently also up late, but she was working. She had sent me an acceptance letter for my story, "Like a Salmon, I Swam Upstream."
I was overjoyed to the point that it all felt unreal. I had given up hope on my submission to Stealing Time magazine because I had not heard from the publisher after several months of waiting, and, since it was an online submission, I thought the response would be sooner. I had told myself that the editors wouldn't take it because it didn't fit well enough with the issue I submitted it to. I had written it with the Pregnancy and Birth issue in mind, but, when I went to submit it, the magazine was no longer taking submissions to that issue. So I tried the Milestones issue instead. I also feared that the publishers might not like my Christian point of view. But now this editor said she LOVED the story and was excited to publish it. I figured she couldn't be more exited than me, but one had to wonder.
The email added that the story just needed a little bit of editing and that I would be referred to the fiction editor for that. Oops! I wrote my fellow Robin back (she shares the best name in the world with me) that I was very excited to have them publish my story but that it was not fiction; this story of a difficult unplanned pregnancy and a three-year nightmare legal battle over custody of my child was my personal experience, just as I remembered it.
I had sort of jumped the gun there in my eagerness to reply to the acceptance letter. A second email had followed right after it announcing an update on the information on my submission. I clicked the link it cited, and read a note that the words "fiction editor" had been a typo. A couple short notes followed clarifying that there was no more confusion. As I like to say, editors need editors.
Stealing Time is a literary magazine for parents. Between it's slick, expertly-illustrated pages, it showcases thoughtful fiction, non-fiction, and poetry having to do with parenting, step-parenting, grandparenting, and so forth. I was first introduced to the publication at Wordstock last year, where I met some of the editors and bought a copy for $6. They told me they accepted previously-published material, which was a relief to me, because practically any small exposure to a piece of writing is considered publication, and I've posted some of my stuff on the Internet and also had some published or "desktop published" in very limited circulation, thereby barring those works from most publications. In addition to this open door, this magazine pays well--much better than anyplace that has ever used my writing. Each writer gets a minimum of $100, with payment going up according to length and how much they love the piece.
The Milestones issue is for this summer and fall. You can read about the magazine, enjoy some sample stories, and submit your own work to the coming issue of your choice at StealingTimeMag.com.
Thanks go to the people who critiqued my story, and, many years ago, to the people who helped me get through all the rapids and snares of that time I wrote about. My daughter is 23 now, and living far away. Despite the present distance, I'm glad that we got to do a lot of growing up together, instead of her never knowing her mother at all. And thanks go to my own mother, who encouraged me to take up the fight, and who would be proud of me if she were still alive. Many people I could thank, but trying to remember them all here would give away too much of the story.
As I once read in Writer's Digest, "It's all copy." That is, whatever you go through in life, learn to eat your problems for breakfast, and, when they are digested, write what you remember, and sell it!
I was overjoyed to the point that it all felt unreal. I had given up hope on my submission to Stealing Time magazine because I had not heard from the publisher after several months of waiting, and, since it was an online submission, I thought the response would be sooner. I had told myself that the editors wouldn't take it because it didn't fit well enough with the issue I submitted it to. I had written it with the Pregnancy and Birth issue in mind, but, when I went to submit it, the magazine was no longer taking submissions to that issue. So I tried the Milestones issue instead. I also feared that the publishers might not like my Christian point of view. But now this editor said she LOVED the story and was excited to publish it. I figured she couldn't be more exited than me, but one had to wonder.
The email added that the story just needed a little bit of editing and that I would be referred to the fiction editor for that. Oops! I wrote my fellow Robin back (she shares the best name in the world with me) that I was very excited to have them publish my story but that it was not fiction; this story of a difficult unplanned pregnancy and a three-year nightmare legal battle over custody of my child was my personal experience, just as I remembered it.
I had sort of jumped the gun there in my eagerness to reply to the acceptance letter. A second email had followed right after it announcing an update on the information on my submission. I clicked the link it cited, and read a note that the words "fiction editor" had been a typo. A couple short notes followed clarifying that there was no more confusion. As I like to say, editors need editors.
Stealing Time is a literary magazine for parents. Between it's slick, expertly-illustrated pages, it showcases thoughtful fiction, non-fiction, and poetry having to do with parenting, step-parenting, grandparenting, and so forth. I was first introduced to the publication at Wordstock last year, where I met some of the editors and bought a copy for $6. They told me they accepted previously-published material, which was a relief to me, because practically any small exposure to a piece of writing is considered publication, and I've posted some of my stuff on the Internet and also had some published or "desktop published" in very limited circulation, thereby barring those works from most publications. In addition to this open door, this magazine pays well--much better than anyplace that has ever used my writing. Each writer gets a minimum of $100, with payment going up according to length and how much they love the piece.
The Milestones issue is for this summer and fall. You can read about the magazine, enjoy some sample stories, and submit your own work to the coming issue of your choice at StealingTimeMag.com.
Thanks go to the people who critiqued my story, and, many years ago, to the people who helped me get through all the rapids and snares of that time I wrote about. My daughter is 23 now, and living far away. Despite the present distance, I'm glad that we got to do a lot of growing up together, instead of her never knowing her mother at all. And thanks go to my own mother, who encouraged me to take up the fight, and who would be proud of me if she were still alive. Many people I could thank, but trying to remember them all here would give away too much of the story.
As I once read in Writer's Digest, "It's all copy." That is, whatever you go through in life, learn to eat your problems for breakfast, and, when they are digested, write what you remember, and sell it!
From the Red, Read Robin
Things of interest to readers, writers, editors, and people in general.
- Robin Layne's profile
- 11 followers
