Last week I sent out an essay for consideration to the writer’s union magazine, and, blessedly, heard back quickly. They rejected it, but so fast, no long wait. Today, I sent another, longer essay to a literary journal and while there, checked my Submissable account, which writers use to submit material for publication. 

Since November 2012, I’ve sent 25 essays or book manuscripts through Submissable. Four are marked “received,” which means pending. One piece was accepted by an online magazine which published it and has since vanished; the same one was withdrawn from another magazine because it had been accepted elsewhere. 19 were rejected. 

One accepted out of twenty-five: This is not a great batting average.

What can you do? Sam Beckett: “Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” 

First garden bouquet of the year: mint, lilac, viburnum, bleeding heart, a daff, and lilac that actually survived the winter. As, apparently, did we. Impossible to work on such a glorious day. It’ll be 26 degrees tmw. I will think about that and not about rejection.

Ha.