You have to pay to play, and you have to play to win!

Writers are neurotic a lot of times by their very nature.  At least in my experience with them they are...and that's ok, because being weird really helps with writing something unique from other weirdos.  Not all weirdos are created equal...I mean, there's only ONE Steven King...and god bless him and his absolutely epic mind full of strange and sometimes horrifying tales!

{I mean, just look at him, he just LOOKS like he's about to tell you a tale, doesn't he?!  Can you imagine being told a tale, sitting by a campfire with Steven King?!!?  Ah, the nightmares you'd have!}

Now, I'm no Steven King, or Dean R. Koontz, I'm just a Heather Osting, and that's ok.  I'm perfectly comfortable being me, so long as I'm always working on the best possible version of me...and constantly striving to be THE BEST writer that I can be.  The only way I know to do that it to continuously try to improve, learn from past mistakes, take constructive criticism in stride, and be willing to take a chance on myself every once in a while.

On April 6th, I did just that.  I sent a letter to a publisher with a small sample of "Dead in a Ditch", and on Friday the 13th, under the full "honey moon", I arrived home early, something I never do, I got the mail, something Jerimy always does.  I was preparing for our big Kayaking trip to Mad River, so I threw the mail on the kitchen table and began running around like a chicken with my head cut off, packing, and preparing for a night sleeping on the ground in a tent.  When you get to be my age, sleeping on the ground in a tent requires much more preparation and planning than it did when I was a younger girl!  FYI, two sleeping bags as a mattress...NOT ENOUGH PADDING.  ALSO....when it's 48 degrees out, one little light down blanket IS NOT SUFFICIENT for optimal warmth!

Anyway...so as I was packing and whatnot, I took a moment int he midst to flip through the mail and I found the SASE that I had enclosed with the publisher submission that I had sent out.  There it was, my name and address, typed by me, and I said to myself "Oh, well here's a big ole REJECTION letter!!"

I contemplated NOT opening it...Rejection is NOT my strong suit.  I was afraid it would ruin my whole trip,a and I just didn't feel like being a sad sap on such a momentous occasion!  I mean, now often do you get to spend your Friday the 13th - Full moon on a dark, fast flowing river, with a bunch of weirdos that you call friends?  Not too damn often, I'll tell you that!

But, I decided like a bandaid, I'd rip it off, take the sting of rejection and then I'd go on my trip and it would make me FORGET about how it feels to know you're writing is utter and complete crap!

So I tore open the letter, and to my complete shock and amazement, I did not receive a letter that looked like this:

{STANDARD REJECTION LETTER}

Instead, the Publisher I most wanted to work with, actually requested that I send them a bigger sample of my writing!

Did you hear what I said, they DID NOT SAY:

I couldn't believe my eyes...

What was happening?

Was I dreaming?

had someone just played a prank on me?

I looked around for a candid camera...

I waited for Ashton Kutcher to jump out at me with a camera telling me I'd been "Punked"....

but nothing happened.  Nobody erupted from behind a clothes rack, or from a closet.

The house was completely quiet, except for the sound of my very excited beating heart.

I dialed Jerimy immediately....he didn't answer.

I dialed again.

Still no luck.

I called my sister Ang...

I said "Guess what?!?!"

She said "Whats wrong?"

I said, "NOTHING!!  I just got a letter from a publisher that wasn't a NO!

I may or may not of blubbered and cried a little, but that's just between you and me here!

For writers, an NON-NO, is the equivalent to winning the lottery.

It means that you at the very least did SOMETHING right to get them to even consider reading more of your work.

I actually said to my sister, "Nobody really gets everything they want in life do they?  I mean, I just got engaged, and now this?!?  I'm afraid that I'm about to get hit by a bus or something to balance everything out."

Angie said "I do the same thing, I always question my blessings first, and then have to tell myself to just accept them."

Why must believing in yourself, in the good, always create such a massive fear of disappointment that keeps us from full on rejoicing and celebration?

Now, before you try to tell me "But Heather, they might still totally reject you after they receive more of your manuscript...Yes, I realize this.  And I have accepted that notion.  But they could of rejected me after reading 25 pages.  Why not rejoice in the fact that they now want 100 pages?

To a writer, the opportunity to submit something that was REQUESTED is the equivalent of a:

And let me tell you, It's a wonderful feeling just for the opportunity to take a ride on the merry go round.  Even if I get thrown off after two spins, Oh, what a ride it will have been.

Someone asked me recently, "So why did you send your manuscript TO a publisher?  You're doing fine selling them yourself on Amazon."

I replied with, "Yes, I know, but a publisher can get my books into the hands of people that I cannot simply reach.  They are in the business of books, and like it or not, I'm just one little person, to get my book into the hands of the general public, well that's an amazing feat that even I am not so optimistic to believe I could do single handed.

Sending a manuscript to a publisher is a writer's way of buying a lottery ticket.

You can't win the jackpot if you never buy a ticket.

You can't lose or be rejected either, but if there's one thing artists know a thing or two about and that's rejection!

 I know this all too well.

I had an older sister who was WAY more popular with the boys than me!

Yours Truly,

~HeatherLynn~