I’m sick right now. I haven’t been sick in ages and so this head cold feels apocalyptic. I have been trying to get a new job, and my trying seems to be going nowhere. My current job is getting me out of debt, and my second job is getting me to Iceland and Washington DC and all the places I want to go to see my writer-tribe, but this other job would do all of that more quickly and in a less oppressive environment. It’s frustrating, just like this head cold.
So, to buck up my optimism, I wanted to take a look into the way back machine of my personal internet footprint at this old gem: Journals on my list, 2011. This was a few months before I started my MFA and it was in between days 295 and 296 of “being a writer”—some chronically unpublished asshole slash internet stalker once tried to rake me over the virtual coals for not writing enough that year, and instead spending all my time writing about writing (so to that guy: HA HA HA HA)—and it is a good reminder to me of the slow march of progress.
This is not a sprint, but a marathon. I had a fast couple of miles, and they make this current stretch feel like standing still by comparison. But take a look at that list and then look at this list:
- ORION: Back to the Land
- CREATIVE NONFICTION: Square Root of True (and a whole mess of #cnftweets)
- FLYWAY: Bone
- BREVITY: Mothers & Fathers
That’s over 25% of my dream journals from way back when! And since then I’ve had very lovely (and not so lovely) personal exchanges with a couple of others on the list. To that end, this list needs updating.
NEW AND IMPROVED BUCKET LIST (in an order that changes, daily):
- Guernica
- The Normal School
- Creative Nonfiction
- The Sun
- Blackbird
- Gulf Coast
- Virginia Quarterly Review
- Aeon
- Seneca Review
- Writer’s Chronicle
Here’s to the next six years and slow, steady progress.