The summer is hard for a stay-at-home mom/writer. Writing has taken a back seat to family vacations and days at the swimming pool.
But even harder on the novice writer is the growing pile of rejections and worse, hearing nothing at all. The phrase, "no-news-is-good-news," doesn't stick in the writing world. Rather, it means your writing has been heaved unceremoniously into a mile-high stack of paper destined for the recycle bin. Many publishers and agents put this fact out in front. And to put it in the language of the street, I'm down with that. But when you attend a conference and make a personal contact, you hope to get more than a deafening silence broken only by the lonesome cricket melody. You expect at least a form notice of rejection, if not a short personal note.
So earlier in the year when I received no word from a conference contact, the wind dropped from my sails, and my boat floated stagnant in the water. I needed distance from my writing. I needed to reassess my priorities...then...
Out of the blue, I get a letter of acceptance from Highlights magazine. Holy cow! Just when I had begun to think the writing gig was a pipedream, I get a contract offer for my story, "Wobblejohn." And my next thought went something like this: "Man, I better get back to writing."
So let that be a lesson to you, Kristen Hilty. Don't go wasting time on daydreams and pool tans. Get back to work. Write, write, and write some more. Because in the middle of all the silence, someone, somewhere, might be reading your stuff and actually liking it!
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