Ok, well technically I didn't ask publishers and literary magazines and agents to reject me. I'm not actually crazy, though I may come across that way sometimes. Often times. Okay most of the time.
But back in October I went on a submissions spree where I sent out 30 queries in 30 days, and the thing that was different from the other 82 billion times I sent out my work was that on this occasion I welcomed rejection.
My first post about this journey, called Please Reject Me, pointed out that many writers whom we now know as best-selling authors were rejected countless times. For example, Western author Louis L'Amour was rejected 200 times before Bantam signed him on and now he's their best ever selling author with 330 million sales.
Anyway, here's what I really wanted to say:
One of those submissions resulted in publication!!
I'm absolutely thrilled to announce that my short story Full Circle won third place in a writing competition and as a result has been published in Artificium's anthology!!!
You see, blind fury and a willingness to be rejected 29 times pays off!
This issue's theme is loss of hope, longing for what was, promises unfulfilled, dreams pursued and lost, and a yearning to be flawless and faultless. Which, of course, I know nothing about. <innocent whistle> Pure fiction!
As a matter of fact, I wrote Full Circle in a couple of hours on Thanksgiving Day back in 2006 when I was feeling some of those things.
You can purchase the e-book on Amazon (Kindle only).
Or purchase it on the Artificium website (hard copy — you know, the kind of book that can be displayed shamelessly on your bookshelf and you can open the cover and see the author's signature!).
Artificium has more contests, so I encourage you to check them out right here!
