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Author
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Comment
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redtriskell
Registered User
(9/25/04 3:11 am)
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frustration
Well, I'm not sure that this is the place to vent, but I hope everyone will be patient. Why oh why is it so difficult to find publishers? This is, of course, a rhetorical question. It just gets so frustrating to write and write and get polite (usually) rejections in the mail. I know the short story is a dying art form, though it saddens me to say that. I know you have to put in the effort and slog through the rejections in order to get print. I know it's not personal. I know magazine publishers are trying to make money. I know the story mags don't exist like they used to- that magazines are competing in a much more fierce marketplace in a society that doesn't seem to be as interested in storytelling. And I secretly suspect that fantastical work gets the short end of the publishing stick anyway. Sometimes I wonder what god I annoyed that is now exacting revenge by making me want to be a writer. A writer of things that could never be in places that only exist because I made them. I occasinally think it's funny that I write the things I do... whatever gave me that idea? I certainly don't get it from my side of the family... Anyway, I realize this isn't much of a post, but I don't really have anywhere else to blow off this particular steam. So thank you for the space to vent. PS- It's all my mother's fault. She told me too many stories when I was little. And then she said I could be anything I wanted, and I believed her. Even after I couldn't manage to turn into a mermaid.
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Laura
McCaffrey
Registered User
(9/25/04 4:50 am)
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Re: frustration
You may find this helpful, or more depressing. It's Jane Yolen's online journal, where she writes about many things but especially her writing. You will notice how frequently she gets rejections, which may help you to take it less personally.
www.janeyolen.com/journal.html
LauraMc
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redtriskell
Registered User
(9/26/04 1:21 am)
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if even the best...
Thank you, Laura. I was both heartened and saddened to read some
of what Jane Yolen has on her site. Perhaps I will collect enough
slips to wallpaer my library...
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Erica
Carlson
Registered User
(9/26/04 3:24 pm)
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Re: frustration
Sorry about the frustration. I tend to think that your mother was probably right, so hang in there and try to remember (and keep valuing) the reasons you write.
Best,
Erica
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ashkevron13
Registered User
(9/28/04 3:55 pm)
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a promise
It comes from the fey side of your family, obviously. Although don't ask me which side that is.
Please, keep sending your work to publishers. For every rejection letter you get, I'll write you a lovely poem on a silly postcard- it'll take away the vile taste from you and your mailbox. I've already got a nice supply of postcards handy...
But you should know, if you do get published, you won't be able to stop me from reading your stuff.
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redtriskell
Registered User
(9/30/04 12:08 am)
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promises, promises
As if I wouldn't get the poems on silly postcards anyway... and they do take some of the vile taste from the mailbox. You know, if they ever get out- the stories, I mean- it will be okay if you read them. That makes them sound like charges in a poorly run zoo, but you know what I mean.
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