I got another uninformative “it’s not right for us” rejection from an agent yesterday just three days after sending the query in. As usual, I felt the typical sadness of not being good enough and the doubts of what do I have to change to succeed. Again, I thought alternately of giving up on the manuscript or self-publishing it. To me, that leads to possible dead ends and my characters deserve so much more.

Today, I got on my treadmill (because it is in the negative numbers outside) and pictured myself walking away from rejection. Every step I made took me away from the worries, melancholy, and questioning. Each footfall moved me towards my eventual success when some editor or agent will see the spark of beauty that I see in Layne Knowles . My main character is flawed, yes. She is a thief and ghost-whisperer. She feels alone and aches for real contact with another living person, but she never gives up. I won’t either.

So with every rejection, I’ll walk some more steps away from the naysayers and towards my eventual publication. I’ll lose some weight along the way (always a good thing) and keep that positive attitude going. Layne and I are in this together, and along with my muse, Laurel-Ann, we’ll see it through to the end.

What are you doing about your rejections?
Conference News:
The San Francisco Write To Market Conference (Nov 12-15, 2015) is different from most other events I’ve talked about. This one comes with pre-con homework and a planned three days of really pushing the craft of writing as a career. It ends with a morning pitch session as well. For those interested in a career writing for traditional publishing, this may be the event for you.