The duck, duck, goose of writing

Writing, and more specifically, trying to get your writing published, feels a lot like a bad game of Duck, Duck, Goose.  If the Duck is rejection and the Goose is acceptance, what it actually feels like is duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck...ohpleasedeargodfinally Goose!  With the beginning of Fall (hello Autumn!  so glad you're here!), everyone in the literary world is back to work over various slush piles that my stories have fallen into over the summer, and the rejection letters and emails got sent out in droves all at the same time.  Done, desk cleared, room made for the Fall slush pile.  It can be more than slightly disheartening when you realize all that work of researching where a story should go, formatting to their exact measurements, personalizing the cover letter, etc., times the number of journals you send something to, all yields a bouquet of tiny form letters, "This isn't right for us" emails, and the death of a little dream you dreamt while preparing the manuscript in the first place.  It's not personal, and you're not a writer if you don't get rejected, but that doesn't make it fun game.

Which is why, when you finally get goosed with an acceptance, it feels like a giant "Hello, keep it up!" from the universe.

My short story, Bring Your Soul to Work Day, was just published at Ray's Road Review.  You should totally submit your work to them; they are rad.  I was so excited to find a place for this story, and even more thrilled that it found a home there.  It's a gorgeous online literary journal, and free to read, which means I get to share it with anyone and everyone (the other pieces there are a really great read too: Nikola Tesla's obsession with a white pigeon?  Yes!), which is a much wider audience than I would have if it was appearing in print only.  I love online journals for this reason, as well as for the ability to make it look like you are at your computer doing work, when actually you are reading a short story, or you know, a blog.

After a long string of Ducks, this is one happy Goose.