Forty days of ... "success"
This makes me really happy. I love seeing this. You are putting yourself out there in such a big way, there's so much strength in that. Not to sound patronizing, but this makes me proud of you. It's cliche, but you can't hit a home run unless you swing: "In 1923, Babe Ruth broke the record for most home runs in a season. That same year, he also broke the record for highest batting average. There is a third record he broke that year that most people don't know about: In 1923, Babe Ruth struck out more times than any other player in Major League Baseball."
Thanks. Submissions are my least favorite part and annoy me/strike me as pointless - but gotta do 'em, you know? My goal is/was to get 6 poems accepted this year. I'm at 4. I am not certain I will hit six. But I am putting 'em out there, even though they are generally my weird little monstrous babies. That's a great quote. I'm actually going to steal it for my Facebook.
Thanks lil :) These are all mostly "nice" rejections except for Salamander. Salamander was basically like "You think you can write? Fuck you." Although I haven't gotten a really MEAN rejection letter yet - of the kind where the editors ask you why you think you can write etc - I'm sure it's coming in the pipeline, it's a matter of inevitability.
Long ago in a province far away, long before internet publishing, I wrote my first short story independently, as a somewhat adult, not assigned by a teacher. It was about encountering a blind man in a co-ed sauna. I sent it to an early feminist fiction journal in Canada called Room of One's Own. and I waited. And waited. And waited. Eventually a letter arrived. It said similar stuff to the ones you posted "not right for us at this time", etc. But this rejection letter had one line that thrilled me: "Frankly," it said, "it gave us some pause." Since it was my first ever submission of a story, that line gave me some pause. I'll dig the story up and post it here under #shortstory.lil
When you do post it, can you PM the link or shout-out? I am on the go all week and headed out of town Wednesday, but I will look forward to making time to read it. Thanks!