Yesterday, August 29th, was my birthday. I’m always thankful to make it to another birthday because tomorrow isn’t promised.
This birthday was extra special.? I got the best birthday gift ever, and it came in my Inbox.
Can you guess what it is?
You’ll figure it out but I will let the suspense build anyway. *insert evil laugh here*
Let me back up.
For more than a year now I have been writing short stories every week and? sending them out to various online journals to be considered for publication.
If you think that sounds easy, try sitting down and writing one short story every week.
The rejections poured in regularly.? But then something happened.
On Monday, two days before my 48th birthday, I was going through my morning email and saw a reply to one of my submissions.? The story I submitted to this particular journal was sent two weeks prior. Quick turnarounds in the writing world are not good.? I braced myself for rejection and opened the email.
My hand was guiding the cursor to hit the delete key (because I already have enough of them saved to say “I told you so”) when my brain noticed something.
It wasn’t a rejection!
I couldn’t process it.? I stared at the screen with my mouth hanging open.? I called my husband into the room to share the news.? Okay, I admit it, I also called him into look at the email and make sure I wasn’t going crazy.
He saw it, too!
I logged in to my?Submittable account to be sure this wasn’t a cruel joke.
Sure enough they accepted it!
All of that time I spent writing, researching journals to submit to, and submitting has paid off.? So many mornings I felt like I was wasting my time, but I refused to give up.
In fact, whenever a story was rejected, that same story was submitted to at least two more places.? Rejection became the lighter fluid that fueled my writing fire.
It paid off.
I’m still waiting to hear from the journal about the editing process, but that’s okay.
I did it, y’all! I will soon be able to say I am a published author.
And that is the best birthday gift ever.
Hi, Leslie! Thank you so much for your kind words. Isn’t it fun to realize that you have an entire stack of short stories?! When I get discouraged about the rejections I just look at what I’ve done and say to myself “you’ve done too much to quit now!” Thank you so much for your continued support. It means a lot to me.
Congratulations on having your work accepted AND making another birthday!!
I really admire your discipline, by the way. A while back I took a course in which we had to write a 5000 word story every week and I found that quite challenging. However, at the end, when I realized that I had grown a mini short story collection (albeit imperfect) I was psyched!
Hi, Leslie! Thank you so much for your kind words. Isn’t it fun to realize that you have an entire stack of short stories?! When I get discouraged about the rejections I just look at what I’ve done and say to myself “you’ve done too much to quit now!” Thank you so much for your continued support. It means a lot to me.
Congratulations on being soon-to-be-published! And happy belated birthday! I wish you many more of both!
Thank you, Leon! And thanks so much for stopping by and taking time to read my posts.
Congratulations! Thank you for sharing your triumph — and for this lovely reminder about the power of perseverance. 🙂
Thank you, Kelly! I appreciate you taking the time to visit and read my posts. It has been a learning experience for me as well. The waiting game is so hard when you are an emerging author. You question if your writing is good enough. But all it takes is that one ‘yes’ to give your spirits a boost!
Congratulations!???
Thank you sooo much!
CONGRATULATIONS!!! And Happy Belated Birthday!!!
Hi, Rashida! Thank you so much for stopping by. Thank you for the well wishes and birthday wishes, too! 🙂