Pay It Forward....

Pay It Forward
Lucky you!

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me!

My choice.

For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1 - I make no guarantees that you will like what I make! (Though I may ask some questions during the process.

2 - What I create will be just for you.

3 - It'll be done this year (might take a little while).

4 - You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or an article. I may crochet or quilt something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!

5 - I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same.

The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me!

Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

Good luck!

As Long As There's a Drawer. . .

I realize the reason I like blogging so much is because my blog publisher really likes all the things I have to say. I don't get rejection very often.

This morning I got this SASE back from my university's literary journal, Touchstones. I had submitted 7 small works of which I was moderately to greatly proud. The self-addressed stamped envelope had very pretty writing on the front (ahem, mine) but it looked much too clean, thin and hastily posted.

I smiled and said to myself, "Ah, my first rejection letter!"

Sure enough.

I permitted the smile to leave briefly, but ordered it back to work not a moment later.

I put the letter, the envelope I bought, the stamp I paid for, my handwriting, in that drawer of stuff you aren't sure what to do with but will worry about later.

But I won't worry about it later. I'll worry about the next one. It'll be bigger. When I send it, I will have shaky confidence. When the reply comes, it will hurt no matter the reply. You know, cry if you do, cry if you don't...or something like that.

It's humbling, to think you may have had at least one out of seven good ideas actually be good and to have another not think so. But, think of it as another form of rejection: you're just not what they're looking for; doesn't mean it's not good. It'll be good for someone, someday.