Yes, I am quoting the wondrous Lewis Carroll there. It’s appropriate, in a way, because today the post is about children.
Specifically, our child.
We’ve been so fortunate to meet some of you in person, and, therefore, some of you have met our daughter, but most of you probably had no idea we have a daughter.
I know, as I am always submitting my work for publication too, that it is easy to imagine the publishers as people in their offices 24/7, never doing anything but reading (and rejecting! LOL… that is often how I feel when I submit!), and publishing, whatever the heck that involves. I know I had one publication last year that took so long to finally BE; it was literally driving me crazy, wondering “What are they doing?” And yet, being me, I know what they are doing.
Dave and I have often frustrated our daughter, by doing DPP work on the weekends, and at night, often when she wished we were hanging out with her. She’s given a lot to the business.
Our daughter wants to be an artist, and, where we currently live, there is little opportunity, and certainly none in the school system, either the public school, or the one lone charter school with the un-winnable lottery. Our school district is very, very proud of its athletics, as are so many schools in the USA. And I have personally seen the money colleges put out for their sports teams. But what are school districts doing to support the writers, the artists, the chefs, the musicians, the performers, the thinkers, the activists? Ours isn’t doing squat. Or if it is doing something, it’s keeping it a pretty big secret.
Unless some miracle of biblical proportions occurs, Dave and I are only having one child. It’s important to us to do as much as we can do as parents.
And so, we’re moving.
Ha! That was long-story-short, eh?
We ended-up where we are now when Dave’s mom was failing, and we needed to be closer, and it’s been great being here, and it absolutely spawned this press and got us both writing regularly again. And now we’re going to take our act on the road.
And so we’re packing up the press for a big move.
We are hoping to be fully settled by June, and back on track.
What does this mean to you?
A. Well, if we’re publishing your full-length work this year, we’ve already been in touch and asked for grace as we pack and label boxes…. so many boxes…. so, hold your questions, at least until April, if at all possible, as we pack and move the whole shebang.
B. If you have submitted to the Hawkshaw Press Hardboiled and Loaded with Sin anthology, everything should proceed as planned, untouched by the move. If your piece is accepted, you’ll be notified by email, get a contract, and a check for $25 in March, through the US Mail, and publication will be in the fall.
C. If you have submitted to the Devil’s Party Press anthology Solstice, and your piece is accepted, you’ll be notified by email, get a contract, and a check for $25 in March, through the US Mail, and publication will be in December.
D. If you have submitted to Instant Noodles for the first issue of 2022, everything should proceed as planned, untouched by the move. If your piece is accepted, you’ll be notified by email, get a contract, and publication will be in April, though we may be a teensy bit later than April 1, 2022, simply because submissions end 2/28. It is my goal to hit that deadline though.
E. For Out of This World Press and Gravelight Press, we don’t have any upcoming anthologies, though we are working with some of you on full-length publications. For those of you in that group, see A above.
F. For those of you who have submitted a full-length work to Duosuma/Duotrope and have not yet received a reply, unfortunately you’re likely to be in that situation even longer. I apologize. And, I have to tell you, we are not alone in this. As I said up at the top, sometimes publishers take a crazy amount of time, whether they are going to accept you or not. We hope to begin going through those submissions again in August/fall 2022. In the meantime, do not wait for us. Take any opportunities you have. Life is short, as the pandemic has showed us, and it is important to make the life you want, now. If no one else grabs you, you can still keep your submission with us. If someone does grab you, we will celebrate with you; no hard feelings.
Well, that’s all this walrus has to say at the moment.
If you have questions, you can leave a comment, and I will do my best to answer them, and be honest when I do. I really want anyone who submits to us to know that we are not in this for ourselves. Heck, if we were, the money, and the child, and the…. you get the idea. No, we’re really on a mission to give opportunities to writers, and that is why it costs us so much of our time, and capital, and we are happy to do it. And, we need to take some time back now, to give our daughter the opportunities she needs to live her best life, too.
So, we hope you understand. We appreciate you, and we’re grateful for you.
Much love~
Di and Dave
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