I Have Become Accustomed To Rejection

Outstanding Submissions: 18

Rejections: 1, personal, Camera Obscura. They said, “I’ll tell you that this came close. I enjoyed the voice, but I wasn’t sold on the heroin angle.”

If I had a dollar for every time I heard that line… Ha!

I am at the bottom of a deep dark mine. I feel like the miner in Ryan Boudinot’s story The Mine in Monkeybicycle 6. I just dig (write) and dig (write) and dig (submit) and dig (submit) and never see any light and still, I persist, not for the sake of persistence but because there’s nothing else I know how to do, because there’s no other reality of which I can conceive.

That was a bit dramatic but it felt good to write.

The great thing about having a blog about rejection is that I can write about rejection over and over again. There is truth in advertising, after all.

Let’s talk about Project Runway. Why is it that Althea’s models couldn’t walk. It was tragic. Team Carol Hanna all the way! That last dress? Fierce. Also, her models could walk. They walked like they weren’t as hungry as the average model. Grudgingly, I will admit that Irina’s clothes were fierce too but she’s a real [[insert noun beginning with b (5 letters) or c (4 letters)]]. Irina’s dad is pretty hot though and so is she. I’ll try to be gracious in defeat because she displayed a bit of humanity at the end. Be honest, though. Heidi looked like an insane person when she was addressing the finalists. Did you see her eyes? One was bigger than the other. I think there was a clump of mascara on the eyelashes of her right eye. HDTV— like you’re right there.

I would talk about Grey’s Anatomy but it was a sad, dreary little episode where the writers clearly decided to throw eleven dramatic, silly things at the wall to see what might stick. Unfortunately, it all stuck. At a blistering pace, the episode ran from before Thanksgiving to just after the new year. Families were reunited. Fingers were cut. Drinks were imbibed. Miracle surgeries were performed. Passion was unrequited and declared and consummated. All in an episode’s work at Seattle Grace.

I believe in messages in bottles–in saying things and knowing the intent will be understood, in saying anytime, any place and trusting you’ll find me there. I just made that up. I like it. I will use it some time.

Lots of great books in the mail this week–Easter Rabbit, Now Playing, The Bigness of the World, DOGZPLOT Anthology, and What the World Will Look Like When the Water Leaves Us. I’m so glad that this coming week is Thanksgiving Break so I can read all this deliciousness. I’m also making great progress on my dissertation. It’s going to be killer. Yes. You heard it here. A readable, engaging dissertation. It’s like a Unicorn, only you can’t ride it.

Before I click Publish on every blog post I think, “What would my mother think if she read this?” Today, she would think, “My child is crazy and has too much free time.”