While it took us about an hour to get out of Virginia Beach, Virginia (mapquest.com doesn’t always create the most sensible directions) and while we had a slow leak in one of our tires that we had to check every hour or so, we did finally make it to the Outer Banks of North Carlina yesterday.
Never let yourself be victimized by someone else’s promises of fame…
Letters will return next week.
Not long ago, I was teaching an evening course at a local adult education center. About halfway through the session, one student posed a question.
“This may be off-topic,” she began. And she wasn’t altogether incorrect about that. But it was a good question. It was one I’d heard before, and thought about from time to time myself, and it remained with me long after our class had ended.
I have self-published three books and have been trying to build my writing credits. But I only have four magazine acceptances in four years of submissions- none for poetry or fiction. I have become increasingly frustrated by the rejections.
Here’s the most puzzling part. As a 34-year journalist, I have earned a 2004 first place award for sports column writing in the state of Pennsylvania, and was one of three finalists for a Western Pennsylvania Golden Quill Award for editorial columns in 2003. Obviously, I am doing something right journalistically, but haven’t been able to make the transition to fiction and poetry. I have submitted to more than 20 publications, more than half of them multiple times.
I have had a number of rejections wherein I was encouraged as in “you were among the final submissions considered.” But that only helps for so long. Recently, I have even lacked the desire to write.
Thanks for reading this. Do you have any suggestions that could be of help?
I grew up as the clich
Our cross-country, summer trek was so much fun that we’ve taken our children and business on the open road again! We departed Bangor, Maine on Sunday with our laptops and the kiddos and started driving south. During our last trip, we were sensible (say boring). We had a firm itinerary and had made all our reservations in advance. However, that kind of traveling was kind of a drag because we couldn’t stay longer at the places we liked (and had already prepaid for the bad places even when we wanted to leave early). So, this time, we did the non-sensible thing and left home with an itinerary, but no reservations.
This Week:
It goes like this: I open the door, look both ways and sprint for the mailbox in my footie pajamas (much to the delight of my neighbors). I reach up eagerly and open the cubicle, and pull out a handful of circulars and bills. It’s happened to all of us. You need to pay the light bill, upgrade your PC, and take your child to the orthodontist. You eagerly track the mailman’s progress and search your mailbox diligently. The promised check didn’t come and it doesn’t come the next day or the day after that either. You contact the editor rather humbly and ask him to check and be sure the money was mailed to the correct address. He either doesn’t answer your communications, or he makes a really flimsy excuse and mumbles those famous words, “It’s in the mail.”
I am struggling with an issue related to writing. I am in my second semester of college, studying journalism. My past writing experience has mainly been fiction, and personal essays. Last semester I wrote several feature articles as well as a movie review. This semester, I have been working on an investigative piece and am now having a problem with switching writing styles.
