The last few months have been nice and busy. I finished the semester this last week and wrapped up the Fall college ministry classes I teach. But, alas, no rest for the weary–I still have a master’s thesis to write! I never have a truly spare moment.
This month’s status report divides things into Rejections and Acceptances in terms of my writing projects.
Rejections
In the last few months, there have been several disappointing rejections. For my book Super Jake Begins three literary agents “rejected” by book proposal. Only one of them actually said “thanks, but no thanks,” the rest just never responded after several weeks. The one who outright rejected me at least gave me some feedback, even if I disagree with her analysis of my story.
I also submitted an article proposal to a new book Theology and the D.C. Universe. They replied with the classic “we had so many great submissions–but we just didn’t go with you.” Since my recent research interests are in theology and fiction and theology and pop culture, I really wanted to have something published in that field. Maybe later.
Lastly, my alma mater submitted my play Prophetic Theater to a national playwriting competition. On their dime–and the entry fee was a pretty penny. With this play, I won a faith-based scriptwriting contest that Oklahoma Christian University held last Spring, so that’s why they decided to put their money behind my project. But I didn’t even get to the first round.
Lastly, I submitted a shortened version of my article “Disney’s ‘Noelle’ and Women in Ministry” to the egalitarian organization The Center for Biblical Equality. They said they’ll pass, just because their December publishing calendar already had filled up. I put that blog post, in a longer form, on my own blog and it became my most popular post yet! See Disney’s ‘Noelle’ and Women in Ministry.
Acceptances
Don’t worry, it’s not all bad news. Some good things have happened!
Firstly, I got the opportunity to submit seven devotionals conjointly to David C. Cook’s The Quiet Hour and Devotions. While they were easy to write, the editor sure had some opinions on my devotionals! However, we got it worked out, I think. It’s a paid gig so I tried to add his feedback best I could.
Secondly, I just finished the final edit for my academic article “Ambiguity Among the Pharisees in John: The Function of the Pharisees in the Fourth Gospel.” It will be published in Oklahoma Christian University’s academic eJournal, Dialogismos. The anonymous editors loved my thoughts but they pointed out I’m terrible at spelling and grammar. All true. I hate editing things I’ve written. But now that it’s cleaned up, sometime this next year I’ll have my first academic article published!
Recently, I have ramped up submitting my book proposal. It’s probably sitting in the inboxes of seven or eight literary agents right now. Surely this will come with many more rejections–but maybe, just maybe, someone will want to represent it!
