I won’t give in to Murphy’s Law. You know, “If anything can go wrong, it will.” I am convinced that Murphy’s Law happened to me again when my assigned sources never followed through on an interview. Of course, this also was during a time when I was ready to leave for vacation, and my family and I were getting ready to move. Besides, I insisted on meeting my editorial deadline, and keeping my writing moving forward during these seemingly stressful events.

This is a classic case of Murphy’s Law – an area where I was tempted to email or call the editor and state – “I can’t meet your deadline. It’s right after we will be settling on our new home.” My editor gave me an assignment with three sources, all but one of them didn’t pan out. Somehow, I needed to find one other source, preferably two, in order to make the article worthwhile.

But I didn’t give in to my temptation – including during the five days of vacation that my husband, two children, and I desperately needed after going through 30 showings of our old home. We were coming off a stressful summer and gearing up for a busy fall. Oh, by the way, did I mention that I homeschool my two sons, too?

Thankfully, my husband knew I was going to be working on vacation and made sure that I had Internet hookup at the beach. On Monday morning, the third day of my vacation, I talked to my editor, who agreed to give me an extension to Wednesday of the following week, which would be one day after we settled on our new home. Inwardly, I groaned – but I didn’t let her know – even though I was sorely tempted to whine, “But I’ll be settling the day before!”

I knew that once we returned home, the stress would be intense. I had to somehow get this article written while packing, homeschooling, moving, and settling on our new home.

Yet, I was going to get this article out – even if I didn’t sleep again until after Wednesday’s deadline. Once I got the editor’s green light to find my own sources, I did a Google search and found three unique sources that were going to “wow” my editor.

The moral of the story: While on vacation at the beach, I got up early. I made numerous phone calls to Canada, California, Delaware, and New York, on my vacation, due to my determination to meet my deadline. I persevered – my writing wasn’t going to suffer due to a much anticipated vacation – and one that I deserved. And I was bound and determined to be published in this particular trade magazine – so nothing, including some deadbeat sources, an annoying realtor, moving 10 years of stuff, and keeping track of my two sons, three cats, and one dog, was going to stop me from meeting this deadline.

And you know what? I made the deadline. On top of that, my copy was good enough to avoid the previously-agreed upon two revisions of my article. I made my editor happy, and I now have a greater chance of being published in this trade again.

What’s the lesson for you? If you’re serious about writing – no matter the genre – you’d better be willing to sacrifice, work hard, and be persistent to make that deadline – even if you’re moving and vacationing at the same time!

Wendy Komancheck writes about food, landscaping, and agri-business. She resides in Pennsylvania with her husband, two children, and a basset hound, where you can reach her at wendykomancheck – at – yahoo.com. In addition to her writing career, Komancheck has experience tutoring all grade levels in a variety of subjects, including teaching grammar and writing courses to homeschooled high school students.