Dear Sir or Madame, Thank You for Rejecting Me

Dear Sir or Madame, Thank You for Rejecting Me

by Melissa Nott

What's a nine-letter expression for one of the most painful, lonely and oft-times humiliating experiences a person can face?

BLIND DATE?

TEEN YEARS?

PROM NIGHT?

Maybe for some of us.

But then there's REJECTION, the universally negative and disheartening experience of being turned down. As writers, we're drenched in rejection. Rejection assaults us via SASE in our mailboxes. It plagues us electronically in our email inboxes. "The creative work in which you bared your soul is not good enough for our publication," is the general gist of a literary rejection.

    Does rejection sting? Yes.

    Is it good to be rejected? Yes.

    Rejection is the nudge that lets us know, in no uncertain terms, that something we've written is not yet ready for the public eye.

    Rejection is like a true blue friend who has the cojones to tell us, "Hey, there's green stuff stuck between your teeth. Maybe you should floss before leaving the house."

    A kindly editor once rejected a sci-fi story of mine this way: "I liked the world-building element of this piece, but the narrative didn't pack enough punch." He didn't have to spend his precious time writing me that note, but he did, and for that I'd like to bake him a pan of brownies. I took his comment to heart, searched my soul, and realized my main character was boring. I re-worked my concept, turned my dullard MC into a hilarious caricature, and cranked out a much better story, which was eventually accepted elsewhere. Am I glad the kindly editor rejected me? You bet I am. And if only I could remember his name, a scrumptious batch of double fudge brownies would be sailing through the U.S. Postal Service tomorrow.

    Another editor once jotted this on one of my humor pieces: "We're gonna pass." These three words both horrified and mystified me. Gonna? Was the writing so bad you couldn't even be bothered with going to? This rejection incensed me enough to really dig my heels in and think critically about my story. The voice was pretty darned good, but the narrative used too much profanity. I cut the naughty words, which actually ended up strengthening the prose, and subbed to a humor site I wholeheartedly respect. And guess what? The story was accepted. Am I glad the Gonna editor ticked me off enough to push forward and keep on improving? You bet your #$% I am.

    Maybe you're not like me. Maybe everything you write is perfect, and any editor who rejects you is a misguided moron. In this case, is it possible to thank an editor for declining your brilliant brainchild?

    I like to think of it this way: some relationships just aren't meant to be. Many moons ago, I fell in love with a fifteen-year-old boy named Tom. Tom was a school girl's dream: smart, cute, funny. An aspiring writer, actually. I couldn't wait for him to ask me to marry him. But he dumped me instead. I nearly drowned in my tears. The rejection was almost more than my teenage heart could bear.

    But then I grew up. I married a different man. When I look at my life today – loving husband, two beautiful children – I realize how happy I am that Tom rejected me. And I shudder to think what shape my life would have taken if the romantic dreams of my adolescence had come true.

    Writers – even good ones – get rejected. It's part of the job description. When rejection rears its ugly head in your life, you have two choices: you can hate the sir or madame who rejected you with a passion that burns you alive, or you can thank them for giving you the impetus to grow into a better writer and a better person.

    I choose to thank them.

About the Author 

Melissa Nott is a Michigander. Or maybe she's a Michiganian. She resides with one husband, two children, and three egocentric furry creatures. No, make that three children and three egocentric furry creatures. Wait, hold up: Five egocentric furry creatures and one husband. Six egocentric furry creatures? Uh . . . let's start over. Melissa Nott lives in Michigan. Her writing has been accepted for publication by online magazines Defenestration, The Big Jewel, eFiction Humor, and The Story Shack. Check her out at melissanott.blogspot.com.

Featured Author & Editor: Joshua Carstens

Joshua Carstens

Joshua Carstens is a Nerd, and proud of it. Yes, that is Nerd with a capital "N." Joshua holds an MA in Professional Writing where he focused on Creative Writing, and a secondary emphasis in Applied Writing with particular attention to editing and design. He will edit anything you put in front of him, whether fiction or non-fiction and any genre.

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Featured Author: Diane Farone

Diane Farone, a lifelong fan of fairy tales and other truth-rendering fiction, has been happy to turn her writing efforts from academic publications in the publish or perish world of academia to writing for fun in her retirement. Ever the student she has been studying creative writing through the Writers Studio. Her stories have been published in Rose Red Review; Our Spirit, Our Reality; and Story Circle Network.

Contemplative Cat: Susan Kane

Writing an autobiography is a dicey thing. 

    On one hand, it could sound like I am the epitome of teaching (for twenty years), or an adventurer who worked tirelessly by my husband’s side in our hotel in Ireland (for three + years).

    There is also the part where our three children were born and raised, guided through some bumpy roads, and netted us three grandchildren (I love that part). 

    I could make myself appear to be a well-educated writer who is part of an elite group that focuses on writing in the classroom (I bet you were thinking “elite group of assassins), or I could go all humble and refer to my farm country roots with a barn full of stories. (Now, there’s a book to read when it gets published!)

    No matter what is chosen to go down on paper, none of it sounds real to me.  

    Basically, the bits of my life experiences have been carefully chopped into pieces, tossed into a blender, and ended up to where I am now.

    Which is here:  Open Doors Anthology.  I hope you enjoy my contribution, ”Cinder, Ellie: An Exclusive”

To read Susan Kane's wonderful posts, please visit her BLOG or Author Site.

Featured Author: Kate Buhler

 

Kate Buhler is a recent graduate of Fordham University. She is currently living in Buffalo, SD taking time off before committing to a future of 9 to 5s. Kate writes a weekly blog humbly titled “KB Thinks For You: The Only Things You’ll Need To Know From the Only Person Who Knows Them All” as well as a blog called “A Week in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” which details the life of her chronically dissatisfied cat, Ivan.

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A Week in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Author, Journalist, Editor and Reviewer: JL Whitehead

JL Whitehead of The Examiner reviews and promotes the works of authors. He also handles projects that entail proofreading, editing and ghostwriting.

JL Whitehead began writing at the age of twelve while residing in West Philadelphia. Being brought up in the turbulent gang war era of the 70’s, JL’s mother thought it best to keep him inside for his safety. It was then that he turned to creative writing as a means of entertainment and self-expression. Once in high school, he began writing short stories and sharing them with his classmates. Years later, he submitted an editorial piece to PGN Incorporated which evolved into a freelance columnist position. In 1989, he self-published a book of his own poetry entitled, “Universal Words”, and later that same year, he became the cover model as well as one of the contributing poets to “A Warm December” released by Vega Press.

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Dee Ready on Writing a Companion Cat Book

Writing a Companion Cat Book 

By Dee Ready

Years ago, I lived with Dulcy—the sweetest of cats. For seventeen-and-a-half years, she and I cherished one another. On July 8, 1989, two days after she died, Dulcy began to channel through me the purr of our relationship. The words came from that deep center of myself where Oneness dwells and surely Dulcy and I were One.

            In April 1991, I sent a query letter plus five chapters of the book to Jane Meara, an editor at Crown Publishing in New York. In her return letter she asked me to delete half of the 42,000 words of Dulcy’s manuscript by concentrating only on our relationship. Immediately I ruthlessly rid the manuscript of any story that didn’t concern the two of us.

            Of course, being a hoarder of words, I pasted everything I cut into a separate document. (If you’d like to know more about Dulcy and our relationship, please click here for another guest posting I wrote.)

How A Cat's Life: Dulcy's Story came to be

            Crown published A Cat’s Life: Dulcy’s Story in September 1992. For the following six months I enjoyed the hoopla of signings, readings, interviews, and local talk-show appearances. By the following spring, all that ended. Two years later, the final count for the sales came to just under 14,000 books in the United States.

 

            I do not know what the sales were for the editions published in Korea, Germany, Taiwan, and Japan. However, the advance against royalty from each publisher plus the royalties on the US edition enabled me to visit Greece for four weeks to research a novel, on which I’m still working.

            During the next two years, I tried to create a salable manuscript from the stories  I’d cut. To do so, I changed the point of view to third person and introduced Tromley, the cat who lived in the house behind ours. In this first attempt to create a companion book, Dulcy used the deleted stories from A Cat’s Life to teach Tromley how to win a human’s love. 

            Jane Meara’s response?

            “It doesn’t work for me.”

            No contract.

            Next, I tried to use the deleted sections to create the life of Tromley. No go. Down deep I was glad. Using the material that way felt like a betrayal of Dulcy.

            Finally, I came up with the idea of cobbling the material into twelve distinct stories. Once again, Jane Meara turned down the manuscript. “No thread holds it together,” she said. “Nothing compels me to read beyond the first story.”

            In other words, no glue held the stories together.

            So I set aside the material that had been cut in 1991. Someday, I thought, I’ll figure out how to get Dulcy’s other stories out to an audience.

            That someday came several years later when I got the idea to divide the stories into twelve habits of successful cats. Dulcy would “purr” these habits. Then I’d follow each with a short reflection about how the habit had influenced my life as her human. I titled this new manuscript A Cat's Legacy: Dulcy's Story by Dulcy and Dee Ready.

            By this time, Jane Meara had left Crown. I tried the agent route but was unable to interest anyone in even reading the proposed book. Once again, no chance to get Dulcy’s words to readers.

            Now we come to today. I’ve concluded that finding an agent or an editor in today’s publishing milieu is almost impossible. However, Wayman—a small, but growing, publishing house—expressed interest.

  

            If you have any interest in reading Dulcy’s words of wisdom—or mine—please click here to get to its location on Amazon. Dulcy’s purr is sweet. As to the text I wrote, it represents experiences I’ve had in living a long and happy life. May you know peace today in your own lives. 

About the Author

    A psychic once told me that in a past life I'd been a Native American healer and shaman in Florida. The people living in the villages I visited believed I had the ability to change myself into a panther. In my present life, I do seem to have an affinity for cats.

    I now live with three wonderful felines: Ellie, Maggie, and Matthew. They are my family.

    I hope one day to have a novel published. That is my dream and has been since I was eight years old and found my grandmother's typewriter. My first story was a mystery written on that old Royal!

 
Blog: Coming Home to Myself

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