My parents bought an acre of land in 1975. It was mostly forest with a house hidden in the trees. I want to tell you all about it but this is just a quick post. Over 30 years they transformed the forest into a garden park. Then they finally decided it was getting to be too much work for them and they wanted to sell the land. They sold off part of it at first for developing and in 2007 they sold the house and the remainder of the land. When I was back home for a year and a bit I heard that they wanted to move soon. I wanted to record their efforts and I often went out shooting photos around the garden. When I returned to Japan I had a small 20-page photo book made of the garden through the four seasons. My parents loved it.
I thought the story of their garden might be of interest to some gardening magazines in Japan so I typed up an article about my parents and their work and had it translated to Japanese. On Monday I sent the article to a magazine along with a bunch of photographs and a copy of the book. Today I received a letter from the magazine saying they definately wanted to talk to me (I had forgotten to include my phone number). I called them and they said they loved the book and the story and they want to run the article this year. They couldn't give me a publication date but they the editor said she was sure their readers would love the story about how I made a book for my parents, celebrating 30 years of their efforts.
That was the fastest response I ever received. Usually I wait weeks, months, even over a year before I get a reply about a submission. This time I got a positive reply within 4 days of sending it! K was jumping around with excitement. She loved that garden too.
