on being a publication terrier

Music: Clearlake: Cedars (2003)

I am delighted to report that, after more than three years, my article on Huey Long was published today (available here as a PDF file). I'm always happy to have something come out . . . until about two years later when I realize I was stupid and should not have wrote it. Nevertheless, I have not had an essay that was as rejected and roundly critiqued as this particular one. Although it did benefit from the suggestions of all of those rejecters, I never thought the essay deserved the scorn it received. Apparently reading it is akin to pulling teeth?

Regardless, I will say it to all of you junior scholars out there: just because your essay is rejected does not mean no one wants it. With the right reviewers in the right moods, your essay will see the light of the page . . . you just have to be persistent!

To revisit the history of this "well-traveled article," to borrow a phrase from Randall L. Bytwerk, you can start here, and then move on to here.

In other news: I have another cold! Argh! And just in time for spring break. Three cheers for karma!