by Paul Crowley
April 18, 2018
So here we are. The pieces have been selected. They’ve been mostly copyedited; we’re waiting for some people to send us their revisions. We have our Creative Director Kali here with mockups for cover art.
This is getting more real as we go along. I don’t want to get all Full Metal Jacket on you, but this has been a pretty transformative experience. Our Esteemed Publisher has yet to force anyone to choke themselves; our Editor-in-Chief has been muttering about “Private Joker” a lot, but I’m told he’s been doing that since he was a child. The fact that his parents let him watch Full Metal Jacket over and over again is kind of a weird parenting choice, but whatever.
Starting out, we had the submissions, and I’ve already mentioned how many there were to go through. The editor groups worked fast and well, winnowing through what I’m told were a ton of quality contenders.
Then we had the selected pieces, and the copyeditors raced through them. I happen to be one of the copyeditors, and I can tell you this for absolute certainty: every submitter did a great job. There were relatively few technical issues to resolve, and what things we did work on were faster to fix than we had any reason to expect. You more or less expect every file you open to be a sea of wild carriage returns, rampant ellipses, and just plain old icky comma placements. We didn’t have that problem, and as a person who complains a lot, this didn’t give me much to complain about. I mean, I still did complain. But it was muted complaining.
In the meantime, the events people, the publicity people, and the development people worked quietly and diligently and without excessive adverbs to let the world know that something big was coming, and that it’s worth your time. Our development folks have gotten some significant donations in terms of goods or greenbacks from local businesses, and our event people have secured the use of a local watering hole for our May 9 Issue Release Party, where I, your esteemed staff writer, have personally tested all the beer taps for freshness. Finally, and completely out of order with the beginning of this paragraph, we’ve found a use for Facebook that isn’t about sharing cat pictures or sighing at that one racist uncle you have. Don’t feel bad about that, by the way. We all have a racist uncle.
For my part, my biggest job has been writing about the process, and I can tell you that without the guidance of the Editor-In-Chief (or as we call him, Scott) and the Publisher (Professor Laken, to you) this would not be going as smoothly as it is. Sure, the students have done the lion’s share of the work, but we were able to do so because of the quality of the guidance we received.
Now it’s the last ten yards on the drive. That is literally the only sports metaphor I know, and it’s fortunate that it works in this instance. We’re choosing art. We’re getting ready for the release party. There’s also a final exam to prepare for, but the (for lack of a better, less crunchy word) energy in the room is about putting together a journal of exceptional undergraduate fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and art.
I feel like I should apologize. I normally include a lot more jokes in these posts, but the reality of what we’ve been working on has finally hit the most cynical person in the room (me). I promise the next post will be hilarious. There’s something valuable in this process, something every person who ever wants to be published, or even recognized for their work, should go through; if for no other reason than it spurs everyone towards better work than when they started.