VMQ Going on Indefinite Hiatus

Hello all. I am so sorry for the radio silence the past couple of months. I'll get to the point, especially since this is probably not a surprise to many of you, but I have decided to put VMQ on indefinite hiatus.

I started the idea in a wave of inspiration and excitement about a year ago, champing at the bit to get started and get going and get to it. I had expected that an anticipated cross-country move in the fall would mean a slowdown on productivity. I did not expect exactly what life would look like after the move, and how much energy I would have to put elsewhere in my day to day. Multiple times I tried to turn back to VMQ and make progress, and ultimately it's just proven too big a project for my current bandwidth levels.

I am so sorry for raising hopes only to let them down, and I'm sorry it's taken me this long to be honest with myself, and with you, and finally call it. I hope to someday return to the project, in a time when my energy and capacity are both improved, and maybe not taking it all on myself. But for now, I can only apologize, and let it go.

Thank you all for your amazing contributions, and I hope to see them featured in other publications soon. Thank you for your shared excitement, and for your support, and for your patience. Thank you for everything.

Rowan

EIC VMQ

Important Updates Regarding Issues One and Two

First and foremost, apologies for the wait on promised updates! A combination of busy period at Day Job and executive dysfunction has made it hard to focus on much of anything. Case in point, this post was written out (though in tweet form) on Monday 10/09, but it's only being posted now. Brains are fun! While we're at it, another apology and thank you to the submitters who had to wait so long for responses, we are still profoundly grateful that no one yelled at us about it. Really, y'all are good people.

The short version of this update is that we're pivoting for the first and second issues.

We got a lot of AMAZING submissions for Issue One, almost all of them focused on writing. This is great! We love writing! We love writers! We're writers ourselves!

AND

We really want Vital Minutiae Quarterly to feature work about ALL kinds of art.

So, what do you do when you wanted to make a seafood stew but all you can find it clams? You make a wicked good clam chowder, and then you go out fishing again! (Sorry, we're from New England.)

In other words, Issue One will be themed around writing, Issue Two will be themed around...not writing!

And with that in mind, we have put together a plan as follows:

- close submissions for Issue Two for a week (Oct 16th through Oct 22nd)

- review work submitted since Sept 1st for possible inclusion in Issue One (that is, see if it's writing themed, and if we want to include it)

- re-open submissions on Oct 23rd, specifically for work that focuses on art forms other than writing

- extend the submission period for Issue Two until the end of the year (it is currently set to end Nov 30th, but will now end Dec 31st)

What this means for submitters:

- if you submitted work that is about writing, you will be considered for Issue One and receive a response by Oct 23rd

- if you submitted work that is NOT about writing, you will be considered for Issue Two and receive a response within one month of the end of the original submission period

- if you submit work after subs re-open on Oct 23rd, any work on writing will not be considered for Issue Two, and you will receive a response within a month after the end of the new submission period.

We know this is a little complicated, so we made a flow chart!

Creators accepted for Issue One by the 23rd will of course be given the choice on inclusion in that issue, if for any reason they do not want to included. We're not about forcing anyone into doing anything.

In a further update, along with extending the Issue Two submission period, we will be pushing back the launch date for Issue One until the beginning of 2024.

As mentioned at the beginning of the post, Day Job became extremely busy from mid-September through the beginning of October, much busier than we had anticipated when planning out the schedule for Issue One. This ate up a lot of time, energy, and brain, and has unfortunately caused a lot of delay on anything related to Vital Minutiae. We feel like trying to make the original drop date of Dec 1st will do no good for anyone, whether it's us or the wonderful contributors who deserve a good showing.

This is not a decision we made lightly, and we've been going back and forth on it for a while, but it honestly seems like the best choice for everyone. We apologize to our submitters and contributors for any disappointment or inconvenience this causes anyone, and for not planning better, and generally dropping the ball on this. This is a learning experience that we do not take for granted.

Along with this update, we will of course be alerting all contributors about the pushed back publication date via email, and posting on the various social media accounts.

We will also be doing our best to clearly communicate the extended submission period, and reach out more to the artist communities we'd love to hear from. As always, it would mean the world to us if any of you reading this passed along our submission information to any and all artists you know! Or heck, interview them and submit that interview to us! We love that stuff!

That is all of the news we have for now! We will be making a concerted effort to be more active on social media, now that Day Job is not quite so brain-chompy.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who reads, boosts, and contributes to VMQ. This is a project of love, and we love every one of you that adds to it in any way. It means the world to us, and we are eternally grateful.

Keep on arting!

VMQ