Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Jenny Rocks!

My friend and writing partner, Jenny, gave me a wonderful present. She said it was a genius idea and she was right.

She took some envelopes and addressed them to a few of the publications we send our writing to - one I have never submitted to. She stamped them. She included SASE for those which require that. And she included printouts of upcoming themes as appropriate.

Brilliant.

See - I've been a little stuck on submissions recently.

I've been writing a lot. And I do mean a lot - even outside of NaNoWriMo. That's good. But I haven't sent anything out for a couple of months. That's okay; it's not a crime. But I made a vow a while ago to send out one thing a month; which I did for a while. But my life got really busy and I received some rejections and life got more busy and I entered a phase of looking at my priorities. So much I want to do and I was not having the time to do everything - or at least not do it well, or as I wanted to do them. Then a falling out with someone - which really rocked my sense of what I wanted to do, even to some extent of what was most important in my life.

While the situation with this individual was a surprise and I struggled to stay out of a funk from it, it also presented me with an opportunity to really look at where I was spending my time and energy. There were many positive things involved in what I was doing with this person and it was an important part of my life. After my trust was broken, though, I had to re-evaluate and re-form my vision of who I was and what I wanted to do.

I realized that one thing that was hard to maintain with all of that other activity was my writing. So, while I was hurt and saddened by the exchange with this person, I also decided to take this as an opportunity to re-evaluate what I was doing; and how.

About a month after that, I received Jenny's gift.

It was perfect.

I sent out two submissions last week, thanks to Jenny. One of them was using her magic envelope (and sending the piece that Ariel Gore gave me some wonderful advice about how to strengthen - and gave me the courage to send it on). The other was not one of the envelopes; but a place I really wanted to submit to, but had almost convinced myself that my piece wouldn't be accepted anyway, so why even try. But those envelopes, addressed and stamped and packed up together gave me that boost, that little piece of courage to send that one out, too.

Thank you, Jenny.

You gave me a way back onto this path we're on. I'd strayed, just a little.
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