published!
I received an e-mail two days ago from Geez Magazine saying that I was being “seriously considered for publication” in their upcoming Spring issue. Having just been rejected from another “serious consideration” for one of my poems, this came as both welcome and awesome news.
The theme for the issue is the “Daringly Awkward Sermon” and mine was about an experience I had in downtown Vancouver a few years ago (see “holy” below, or comment at the bottom for me to send you the full article).
Anyhow, they said that they would post the nominees for the cash prizes on their blog (http://geezblog.wordpress.com/2009/04/17/nominees-for-awkward-sermon-contest/#more-77) sometime on Thursday (i.e. yesterday), and since there were going to be 30 published sermons and only three winners, I knew that the nominees would definitely be published.
So I waited until Thursday morning and checked the blog. Nothing. Checked again a half hour later. Nothing. Checked again fifteen minutes after that, all the while steaming at the ears, boiling over with a terrible, righteous impatience. Still nothing.
I was forced to go to work, one hand longingly trailing behind me toward my keyboard as I left my room and dragged myself out the front door.
I got home at around 10:00PM and they still hadn’t posted. I was in a fury! They said “Thursday”! They are based in Winnapeg, so by 10PM our time, it was FRIDAY! “Who do they think they are?!” I shouted to the heavens, both fists shaking, body quaking, tears rolling down my face and onto my heaving chest. (Ed. Some hyperbole added here.)
As you can see, I survived until the next morning. I had to drive my sister to school, so I got up early, at 7:00, and checked, supposing that they would make up for their terrible mistake with an early post. Alas, they did not.
I got home after dropping off my sister. I had a coffee. I did my “business.” I checked again. There it was. They posted it. My heart was now beating wildly. I decided to do the whole thing like in a poker game, a slow turn of each card (or nominee in this case, reading each one, scrolling down with infinite patience).
First was a woman named Leslie Barnwell. Not me. Next, Chris Hoke. Still not me.
My heart’s going faster now. I might explode.
Next, Brenda Melles. It is with a sense of glee that I realize the alphabetical order. If I was chosen at all, I would be the last.
At last, it came. Slow scroll past a Schreiber and a Smith and there I was: Jonathan Wright from West Vancouver, BC with his sermon “Holy.”
“Hells ya,” I said, for irony.
If you are my friend, you will buy this issue.
Cheers all,
Jon
2 years ago