Behind the Scenes: What Happens If You Send Us an Article?

By Anna Ilona Mussmann

In Shakespeare’s As You Like It, the character Rosalind says, “Do you not know I am a woman? When I think, I must speak.”

We tend to like to speak, we women. Or, in the case of the online world, to write. For me, writing articles is a way to think about things that matter--a way to process, organize, and clarify what I meant when I blurted out the original germ of the idea in not-very-intelligent-sounding form. Reading and sharing each other’s work is also a way to learn from other women. It is encouraging to hear from people who want to live out their vocations as Lutheran women, to ponder the ways that our theological beliefs shape the way that we live and speak, and to rejoice in God’s gift of grace and the freedom which it brings.

I am grateful for the wonderful ladies who have taken time to join the conversation on this site. Thank you!

We are always eager to hear from new authors. Pull up a chair, grab a keyboard, and join us. We are open to a wide range of relevant topics. We don’t have to agree with every one of your sentiments in order to publish your piece (although we do, of course, reserve the right not to publish work if we do not believe it to be helpful to our readers). In addition, even though many of our articles relate to being a wife and mother, we realize that not all women fill those particular vocations, and we are always looking for articles that relate to other aspects of being a Lutheran woman. We’d love to hear from single women and widows. We’d be excited about a Lutheran movie review. We’d enjoy reading about how your theological understanding impacts your career. Basically, we can only publish what is sent us (and can only write about what we know), so don't assume we aren't interested in a topic just because we haven't yet addressed it on the blog.

Here is how the process goes if you decide to submit something:

When you send an article to sister-daughter-mother-wife (at) googlegroups.com, we stick it into a Google Doc.

Sometimes I make comments and suggestions and ask the author to revise her piece (Google Docs makes it easy for us to chat about specific passages and how to improve them). Sometimes I just jump to the next step, which is correcting typos and making any minor edits for clarity and smoothness. I share the document with Cheryl so that she can do this as well (she is better than I am at catching usage issues).

Google Docs lets us leave each other comments and edit a document together.

It should be noted that although I will tell you if I think you ought to tweak or change your work, the last word always belongs to you. After all, it’s your name on the article! You get to approve or rejects our edits.

It’s all quite fun and non-scary. You should join us!

Right now, we are especially interested in topics like these:

• Advent (what you’ve learned by fighting off the pre-Christmas rush, how your family celebrates Advent, etc.). 
• Being a Lutheran (why you are grateful you are Lutheran, how an understanding of Law and Gospel has influenced your life, etc.). 
• Being a Lutheran in the world (sharing your faith in a university or work setting, dealing with intellectual or emotional assaults on your faith, the need for God’s Grace as you live out your vocations, etc.).