Heather von Doehren answers a frequently asked question here at Relief: A Quarterly Christian Expression about how long it usually takes for us to respond to submissions.

The Short Answer:

3-4 months.

The Long Answer:

We hope it only takes 3-4 months! It’s just that submissions keep coming in and they’re so inventive and great and it’s so hard to decide and sometimes we get this one piece in and we really like it and then we get another one that sounds kind of like the first one so we decide to give it to another editor for a second opinion/third opinion/fourth opinion and then we just decide, what the heck, we’ll take BOTH pieces and then we have to do the layout and can’t find room for ALL the great pieces so we stop reading them for awhile so we can get to print and then we write blogs with really long sentences which takes a really long TIME and then we realize that there are so many submissions in the database that when we try to access it it just starts groaning at us, all like GROANNNNN and we’re like, what the heck was that? And Coach says, dude, that’s the corpuscle analog that’s discombobulating; it’s all out of kimbo and needs to refuel.  And we’re like, dude, we don’t know what you’re saying just fix it and then he has to fix it and when that happens it sometimes takes five months to respond and then we have to rework the production schedule because we’re so behind and dude look at it:

Do you see that?! I mean everything overlaps! Everything! Overlaps! And that’s just the production schedule! That’s doesn’t account for the website, the blog, the RWN, conferences, the Relief Writer’s Database, budgeting, grant writing, marketing, no! The schedule begins when we start reading and ends when we go to print and being quarterly it all overlaps—it has to—so when we get behind we’re always behind and then we hyperventilate and take turns breathing into a brown paper bag because everyone I’ve ever known says that’s supposed to calm you down but we only have like one paper bag to share between all the editors because we’re too poor to buy more than one brown paper bag and it’s almost July and I haven’t read but a handful of poems for the next reading period and it just never seems to end!

But then we get a nice email from a reader or writer who thanks us for what we do and we’re like “Oh, it’s no problem. We love what we do.” And then everything is okay again.

So, yes, on average it takes about 3-4 months to respond to submissions.

We interrupt Relief News Tuesday to bring you an important response to questions/comments we’ve received regarding the direction for the Relief Blog.

Dear Relief Readers:

I don’t mean to sound like your girlfriend, but we need to talk.

The title of this blog is actually the subject line of an email I received in reply to last week’s post on how to read the Bible, which (along with several other comments we’ve recently received) leads me to believe that some people out there in Relief-land assume that “edgy,” the term Relief has used to describe our Christian literature, means we are Christians who don’t (or shouldn’t) read or study the Bible.  Let me assure you, this is not the case.

In a way, this confusion is not unprecedented.  Over the life of this journal, we’ve been asked by many to justify our existence in Christian publishing, and we’ve responded by saying that we seek to “bridge the gap” between what we perceive as a growing rift between secular and Christian publishing—a rift that was confirmed this past week when we were criticized for being both too conservative and traditional for edgy AND too loose and off-the-mark with our biblical interpretations to be considered “Christian.”  What surprised us though, was that it was an atheist website that wrote we “watered down religion” by picking and choosing “which laws, rules or commandments” to follow, while it was the fellow Christian writers who criticized the fact that we are running a blog series on studying the Bible.  And so, the question once again on everyone’s mind seems to be what we mean by “edgy.”

And we’ll admit it—carefully studying the Bible doesn’t initially seem like the most “edgy” activity in the world.  Nevertheless, it is essential to living a healthy spiritual life—just as studying writing is essential to being a successful writer.  As you’ve probably noticed by now, publishing “edgy” Christian writing isn’t our only goal here at Relief.  We strive to also act as a resource for Christian writers, which mean we’ve published quite a few articles recently designed to make writers more professionally successful. For example, we’ve blogged about why writers need technology and how writers can hone their craft—and we’ve received glowing compliments about these articles, even though they weren’t as “edgy” as, say, our interview about Relevant Church’s 30 Day Sex Challenge.   It seems, though, that it is easier to convince people that writing takes practice, development, and study than it is to convince them that faith also takes practice, development, and study.  But as a Christian literary journal, we feel it necessary to address both Christian and literary matters alike.


Back to the Relief Blog:

With this in mind, we plan to continue publishing resources for Christians in addition to resources for writers—and we plan to present a comprehensive view of both subjects.   In an effort to gain a “complete picture of Christ and life,” we have attempted to represent a complete picture of his people.  We therefore have a right-wing conservative Christian blogging alongside a left-wing liberal one.  We have a stay-at-home-schooling-mom blogging next to a workaholic dad.  Heck, we have published authors blogging next to first-time bloggers.  Think of this like Barbara Walters’ “The View,” only we won’t talk over each other, jockeying for more camera time. So stick around and get to know our new bloggers as God sees them: inquiring, intriguing, and absolutely beautiful people.

And for the record, almost all of the ideas you’ll encounter in these blogs, like almost all of what you’ll encounter in life, remain open to discussion and refinement.  In addition to providing a full, eclectic picture of what it means to be Christian today, we also strive to be more accessible as a community.  If something you read strikes you as either too edgy or not quite edgy enough, you are invited and encouraged to leave a comment (I think we are close to working out all the bugs with our commenting system).  Think of the edginess as coming from your ability to assess, question, and delight in your faith as much as you would your art.  And if you just can’t get enough of Relief on this website, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and roaming around the Relief Writers Network.  We strive to be a community and we would love for you to be a part of that community.

Like I said above, if both Christian life and Christian writing are going to be all that they can be, we need to talk.

Sincerely,

Heather von Doehren
Assistant Editor
Relief: A Quarterly Christian Expression

P.S. We’ve also received emails from people who can’t quite figure out what we’re blogging about when. That’s my fault, as I’ve been experimenting with the schedule this first month (think of me as the B. F. Skinner of the Relief Weblog).  Therefore, I promise to experiment less for consistency’s sake.  As such, you’ll find a “Blog Schedule” published on the right sidebar.  Mondays will feature a message from one of our editors regarding the state of writing and publishing, focusing on topics specifically designed to help writers.  Tuesdays will continue to feature updates about Relief News and other happenings with the journal.  Wednesdays will be a sort of “Relief Recommends Day,” where we’ll publish interviews with authors, book reviews, websites that you absolutely must know about, and the like.  Thursdays and Fridays we’ll rotate staff bloggers to give you insight into more general and personal stories about life, God, and writing.  We will not update on Saturdays and Sundays (unless there’s breaking news) in order to focus on the actual print journal.  Use this time to browse the archive or submit your creative work.  Or, just browse and submit all the time.  That works too.