Super Sensitive/Tough as Nails

I've done this before -- had manuscripts rejected -- so why did this one hit me so hard? I'm still trying to figure that out. I guess I just wasn't in the mood to be rejected.

Once a letter arrived, actually more like a manuscript box, from an agent to whom I had submitted a novel. It sat on my desk for four days unopened. When my husband asked why I hadn't opened it yet, I replied, "It's just a rejection and I'm not in the mood yet." You see, I need to be in a very positive state, feeling on top of the world to accept rejection intellectually with a send-it-out-again, no nonsense mentality. That didn't happen with this one. This time, I felt sucker-punched in the gut.

Maybe it was because it came so rapidly, via email; no time to sit and contemplate whether to open it or not or wait for the right moment. Maybe it was because it came on top of a flurry of emails back and forth about not having received it earlier when it had supposedly been sent. And maybe it had more to do with other stuff going on in my life at the moment.

It was one of those "super sensitive/tough as nails" moments that I always tell kids about at school visits. "Writer's need to be super sensitive to write great stories yet tough as nails to survive the getting it published process." This is not a profession for the weak.

When those "no thank you, not interested" letters pile up, they make you wonder what you're doing in this profession of rejection. And then the "yes, we love it and we want it" comes your way and you know. You were meant to write.

So how did I handle it? I shed a few tears, boo hooed to my awesome critique buddies and went for a long drive. Today the emotion is out of it and I'm ready to write again.

What's your secret for handling rejection/s?

BTW - That box that sat on my desk for four days wasn't a rejection!

Old Friends/College Roommates

I'm headed to the airport to pick up three of my six college roommates. One is already here. Tomorrow we head for SC and the home of the sixth. Five years ago we got the idea that our shared past was important. We've been meeting ever since.

What that has to do with writing, I don't know right now. But through all the memories and shared laughs a story maybe lurking for kids or adults who knows?

The never knowing where the next story will come from is what makes this writer's life exciting. Books I've had published have been inspired by a newspaper article, two personal war stories, requests from teachers, a history book and an insect. So why not college roommates?

I'm looking forward to an exciting week.

What inspires you?

She's GONE! The spider that inspired me is gone!

The spider that inspired me is gone! Truly gone! Disappeared. Vanished. Poof! Was it serendipitous? Coincidence? Who can say? That little bug hung around long enough to get my manuscript moving in the right direction and as soon as I revised my spider story, that darn eight-legged arthropod just plain disappeared.

My critique group agrees that the changes made pointed my story in the right direction and with a few more edits, it will be ready to send out.

But here's another weird thing. Two days ago a web appeared across the stairway leading from one outside deck to another. It was suspended by four strands of silvery silk and in the middle was a perfect web the size and shape of a 45-record! (I'll assume you're all old enough to know what that looks like.) Does this mean I should pull out my saddle shoes, poodle skirt and pony tail scarf and start writing about the 50's?  I don't think so. But maybe.....


What inspires you? Anything as unusual as a spider?