wellswriting

Rejection March 17, 2012

I have another rejection to report, though I’ll admit now that the title of this post has been deliberately stated so plainly to have a little fun at my nephew’s expense. My nephew Roger Laird ( RogerLairdWriting.com ), like myself, is an aspiring writer and had entered the same quarter of the Writer’s of the Future Contest as me.  This was his first posting to the contest and like I have received many times before from WOTF, he has already learned that he has not placed in the contest.  He was and probably still is understandably disappointed, as I no doubt will be when I finally receive the same news this quarter from the contest, but this is not the result I am writing to report.  At least not yet.  While I still hold out optimism for my most recent submission to the contest, I have seen results posted by other regular submitters to the contest who have the same news as my nephew.  These results from writers who have had much greater success than myself in the publishing business leave me with a bit of trepidation every time I check my e-mail.  But it is the lingering hope that I may hear better news from the contest that has given me at least a moment’s relief that the rejection received today was not from the contest (that may still be yet to come). It was a rejection from Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, for my story Dog Sense.

I will of course be choosing another market for the story while continuing to hope/dread news of my showing in this quarter’s WOTF contest.  Rejection is something of a constant in a writer’s life and I have come to accept it.  I hope that Roger does not become easily discouraged by his own rejections so relatively early in his own pursuit of writing.  In fact, he may find more success than me (which at this time is not so high of a measure to achieve) in his writing career if he pursues it for any length of time with an ear for developing his skills of storytelling.  Still, I suspect he has been checking in at this blog to see if I have news on WOTF, so if you are Roger, no news for now is no news.