Did You See the Cover of the New Yorker?

This morning as I lay in bed I got a text message from my old friend Ed Bryant.  We don’t talk that often…his message was in his signature way, out of the blue and off the wall. “Did you see the cover of the New Yorker this week?” came the missive.

I hadn’t, so I went to the web and saw a cute illustration of Captain Ahab attacking stylized giant windmills which some day will be built 20 miles off the Massachusetts coast.  I liked the blue background, and thanked Ed for letting me know about the cover.

My own question about the New Yorker is…what is my next move? After befriending one of their staff writers who submitted a few stories for GoNOMAD, I was inspired…and when I wrote a story I really liked, I asked him for help in submitting it to the respected weekly. He was kind, read and complimented me on the story (which was about a man I met who rides the rails as a hobo), and passed along an email of an editor.

Well, as an editor I do know how much it bugs me when people keep asking me about whether their stories are going to run on GoNOMAD. Yet I understand why they do it, since my submission merited neither a reply or any other communication.   But imagine how high the pile must be of would-be New Yorker contributors…hey, I read that even John MacPhee was rejected about ten times by William Shawn before going on to be a staff writer there.

So I’ll wait, and maybe in a week send a gentle email to my friend. Maybe he can mention the story as he passes down the hall by the editor in question. Hey I’ll never give up hope…