Here in the depth of the Davisville winter (grey mornings and sometimes full days of tule fog), I have decided to revamp my website. In doing so, I’ve been looking back on my desultory blog posts, and realize that in the last couple years they’ve mostly been just about publications and public performances of my work. It feels a little bit like braggery. I feel like I need to explain.
First, this is, after all, my writing website, as in, my professional online presence as a writer. As such, it makes sense to confine it largely to things related to my writing. If you who are reading this want to find out more about what goes on in my personal life, the place to look would be my various social media postings, especially Instagram. Though, to be honest, those updates are few and far between as well.
Second, and probably more in the way of justification, it seems there are so few successes to celebrate in writing, at least as related to failures . . . or setbacks . . . or maybe “lack of successes” is the better phrase. Writing itself is a success, in that, I am incredibly fortunate just to have the time to spend writing. And I do enjoy the process, at least most of the time. But like so many things, it’s easy to fall into the habit of seeing “success” not in the enjoyable process, but as measured against some outside mark.
In the case of writing, that mark is publication.
So, by way of . . . something . . . I thought I would tally the number of rejections of my published work. To wit:
- “Fire Illness” “ 25
- “The Rides of March” “ 21
- “Sailing Lessons” “ 39
- “DACAmented” “ 21
- “San Andreas’ Fault” “ 43
- “Peanut Butter” “ 0 rejections (I only sent it to little somethings press)
And those aren’t counting the stories I’ve sent out for the past couple of years that still haven’t been accepted.
Which is all a long way of saying in retrospect, I can see why every acceptance feels important enough to blog about. It’s not meant to be a boast; just gratitude that someone else in the universe likes my story as much as I do. Neverthelss, going forward I’ll try to write about more and different things than successes.
