Dealing With Rejection Letters from Publishers by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

 

https://www.bookswelove.com/donaldson-yarmey-joan/

Rejection: the act of rejecting; the state of being rejected; a thing rejected.

Rejection slip: a note from a publisher rejecting the accompanying returned manuscript.

Like most writers I have received form rejection slips and form rejection emails telling me politely that the publishing house is unable to accept my manuscript. An example: Thank you for considering ECW. Unfortunately, Controling (sic) Her Death is not right for us. I wish you every success in finding a home for your book.

However, I have also received emails and letters giving me more details about the rejection and adding a few encouraging words about my manuscript.

Dear Joan,

Thanks for submitting Controlling Her Death: My Mother's Date With Suicide to Coach House Books. Our editors noted that there's both an immediacy and a poignancy to the prose that draws the reader in from the first page.

Sadly, however, we can't offer to take it on for Coach House. We can publish only a few novels each year, and we have a surfeit of exceptional manuscripts. This leaves us in the unfortunate position of being unable to house many of the fine manuscripts we receive. We’re sorry to say that we aren’t able to fit your work on our list. 

We wish you all the very best in finding a good home for it. 

Sincerely,

Coach House Books

Dear Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

Thank you for submitting your manuscript The Nursery to Ronsdale Press for possible publication. Our readers have now made their reports, and I am sorry to inform you that they have recommended against publication.

After reading your excerpt our principal editor noted, "This is well written and has a great opening, but I find that it moves too slowly and that her memories-at least at the beginning-are the sort of thing that has been often written about. There is little sense of excitement or the strange. The Stone Angel does something similar, but with more verve.

We wish you well in finding a publisher for your manuscript.

Yours sincerely,

Publishing Assistant.

But a rejection, however nicely worded, is still a rejection and it is hard to accept. In the beginning of my writing career I went through a three day grieving process each time I received a rejection letter.

On the first day I would feel totally depressed. I would question why I was writing, who did I think I was trying to write a novel? I would decided that this would be the last day that I wrote anything. I would wallow in self-pity, shed a tear in frustration, and even kick a door.
Day two would bring anger. Anger at the publisher for rejecting my manuscript. Anger at the months it had taken me to write the seventy-five thousand words. Anger at myself for not having written a publishable novel. I would try to figure out how to change it to make it better.
Day three brought a realization that maybe a different publisher might like it. There is the saying: right idea, right publisher, right day. With a renewed enthusiasm I would send it out again and again. I would decide that no one could take away the fact that I had written a manuscript, that I had had the nerve to send it to a publisher.

We writers are supposed develop thick skins. We are supposed to detach ourselves from our work. We are supposed to realize that we are not being judged, that our intelligence, our sense of humour, our sex appeal, and our character are not on the line. What is being judged is just that one piece of writing we have done. But it is a piece of writing that we have written, that we have spent hours at producing. Sometimes, it is tough not to take a publisher's rejection personally.
But the point is to carry on. With multiple submissions being allowed if one publisher rejects my manuscript I have the two or three others to look forward to hearing from. Sometimes I can have two manuscripts and two or three short stories out in the 'please publish me' world at one time. And when I finish one novel, I start another so I am engrossed in it to spend much time worring about the previous one.
The difference between being a success or being a failure is quitting too soon. And we all know of famous writers whose works were rejected many times before being accepted and becoming best sellers. Here are a few of the rejections letters:

"We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell."
Stephen Kings first published novel, Carrie, was rejected so many times that King collected the letters on a spike in his bedroom. When finally published in 1974, 30,000 copies were printed. A year later the paperback version sold over a million copies in 12 months.

"You’re welcome to le Carré – he hasn’t got any future."

One publisher sent this to a colleague after turning down The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.

"For your own sake, do not publish this book."
A publisher wrote to DH Lawrence about his novel Lady Chatterley's Lover.

Maybe rejection letters make us better writers, maybe they make us better people, or maybe they just annoy us. Whatever our reaction we have to remember that, with publishers receiving thousands of manuscripts each year, being rejected is just one part of the whole writing process.

 

What's in a Name by Victoria Chatham

 

AVAILABLE HERE

All novels are populated by characters and those characters need names. With writing historical novels, or novels set in other countries, characters' names require a little more attention. Are the names appropriate for their era or country? 

As an author of historical romance, I have most of my work done for me as all I need do is Google the popular male and female names for any given year and go from there. Please note: Google is a starting point, not the be-all and end-all for any type of research. Visiting cemeteries, especially historic ones like Highgate Cemetary in London, the final resting place of Karl Marx and George Michael, can be fascinating. Visiting a country churchyard is always a voyage of discovery, especially you wander amongst the older headstones. 

Image courtesy Pixabay.com

 I have also used parish records like this one from my own family history.

Because my settings are mostly English, I can pinpoint the county my characters populate and run a list of names for that area. My next Regency romance, Charlotte Gray, is set mostly in the New Forest in the county of Hampshire, England, so I researched both first names and surnames from that area in the early 1800s.

Once I have a list of names, I consider how easy those names are to pronounce and if the first and second names not only fit together but also suit my characters. Into that mix, I must consider the intricacies of the British peerage if I include lords and ladies in my books. Burke’s Peerage is an invaluable resource for this.

People were often named for the trade in which they were skilled like the English surnames Smith, Baker, Archer, and Tyler, or after the towns or countries from where they originated like York, Hamilton, or French.

First names were often handed down from father to son, mother to daughter, which could get confusing if you had a long line of Edwards or Marys and even more so if, like the boxer George Foreman, all his five sons were named George. Today it seems anyone can name a child anything and sometimes seems more by fancy than reason.

What I find frustrating is when I come across a name in a book and have no knowledge of how to pronounce it. Here again, the internet is a useful resource, especially www.howtopronounce.com. Type the name in the search field ‘and listen to the result.  If you are using an invented name it is only fair to your reader to qualify it in some way for the reader to easily understand it.

Names, whether real or imagined, need to be a solid anchor for readers to identify with characters and, hopefully, come to know and love them.

Victoria Chatham

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Deadly Mixture

 Deadly Mixture (published August 1 by BWL publishing) takes my readers back to Pine County. As with all my books, the research took me a number of unexpected places, in geography as well as content. 

For the uninitiated, Pine County is 1,400 square miles located just an hour's drive north of the St. Paul/Minneapolis urban area. The journey quickly leaves behind the urban centers, then suburbs, taking us past farmland, then into Pine County's forests, lakes, swamps, and rivers. 

I've interviewed three Pine County sheriffs who've pointed out the unique police issues facing the rural sheriff's departments. The first issue is police response time. There are nights were only two deputies are assigned to patrol that huge area. If they respond to a crime or car accident in the farthest corner of the county, it might take them 45 minutes to respond to an emergency in the other corner of the county. 

Many residents are trying to escape the hubbub of the urban areas. They seek the solitude, but expect all the services available in the urban and suburban homes. Police response time is one issue. There are other trade-offs as well. You lose the anonymity of the city and enter a community where people know their neighbors and look out for each other. The other side of that coin surprises many people who relocate to "the boonies." Your neighbors get to know you. They bump into you at the grocery store. They also know what you do, have done, and may do at some future time.

A widower friend started dating a year after his wife died. He had breakfast the morning after his date at the local mom and pop restaurant. He was surprised when the waitress asked about the restaurant where he'd taken his date the previous night. Someone else asked about the movie they'd seen, and a third person expressed his disappointment that my friend was dating so soon (one year) after becoming a widower.

I try to capture those issues in the Pine County books. The teens in Deadly Mixture are trying to escape the prying eyes of the community. They use an abandoned hunting shack to escape what they see as the oppression in their dysfunctional families. A series of unfortunate choices throw them into a deadly mixture of truancy, drugs, and death.

Sergeant Floyd Swenson is back, as is his girlfriend, Mary. Other regulars include Pam Ryan, freshly returned from maternity leave, and Sandy Maki. I've introduced a new character, C.J. Jensen, a veteran cop hired to cover for Pam's maternity leave. C.J. (Charlene Joy) is rebounding from the recent death of her husband. Her basset hound pup, Bailey, brings some humor and another set of challenges to the small sheriff's department.

What I learned writing my first novel, the ignorance of a beginner by Diane Scott Lewis

 Escape the Revolution: "Simply brilliant" Historical Novel Society.

To purchase my novels and other BWL books: BWL

Never write a rambling saga with too many characters that's bursting at the seams at nearly 200,000 words!

I started writing as soon as I could put words on a page; I loved to tell stories. I even had a short story submitted to a literary festival from my high school.

Then I joined the navy, traveled to Greece, met a man and married. And we're still married.

Two children came quickly. I didn't start writing again for twenty years.

Then I decided it was time to dip in the pen, again. Or rather, sneak in writing on my work computer.

The Rude Awakening: I thought I knew everything about writing, but found I knew nothing.

Escape the Revolution, which went through many names and covers, was my first effort.

I rambled on in my story, chapters too long, describing everything, cramming in my stellar research, and the book grew huge. 170,000 words. Who knew there were page and word limits.

Or POV (point of view) restrictions. Everyone had a POV, even a dog or a horse. Thoughts hopping all over the place. Actually, I wasn't that bad in this regard. I've read other authors who made these mistakes.

Where would my story go? I only had a small notion but didn't want it to end, so on I wrote.

Then I bought books on writing and editing. Another shock. There needed to be plot, and structure; your character couldn't just wander on forever to the next adventure. They must have a goal, a conflict, to drive them on. Each person should have a solid POV, perhaps one per scene; but too many characters with 'thoughts' can get confusing.

'Would', 'could', and 'should', must be used sparingly. Gerunds also should not be overused, all those words ending in 'ing'. So many things to avoid. Don't even ask about the much-maligned 'was'.

No double exclamations, heck, hardly any exclamations allowed.

Each scene must be its own structure with a beginning, middle, and end.

Passive vs. Active voice. 

Plus, get that research correct if you write historicals. You don't want any Tiffanys wearing bloomers in the18th century.

Develop your characters, even the minor ones; what is their background, their goals? Even the villains need 'reasons' why they act they way they do. 

Action, Reaction, Decision.

Exhausting. First, I stripped out too much from the story, then realized I needed to put much of it back in, just in a cleaner, tighter way. I had to cut the book into two books because of the length. 

The sequel: Hostage to the Revolution, was published to finish the story.

I'm glad I learned so much from books, workshops, and other authors. The knowledge has been worth it. I've been with my on-line critique group for sixteen years.

To find out more about me and my books, please visit my website: DianeScottLewis

Diane lives in Western Pennsylvania with her husband and one naughty dachshund.

Green Plant versus Brown Thumb by Helen Henderson

Windmaster Golem
Click the cover for purchase information

During lockdowns for COVID-19, many people turned to hobbies, do-it-yourself projects, or exercise for mental and physical well being. One thing that fit all the  criteria is gardening.

Now let me say first off, I did not voluntarily decide to be one of those who turned to a garden for therapy or exercise. I have what has been called a brown thumb. Over the years, my brown thumb has killed plants, bushes, and other green living things including cacti, ivy, grass, forever plants, and azalea bushes. Some of which are under normal circumstances almost indestructible.

What makes my ability as a terminator more remarkable is that I grew up on a farm in the "Garden State." And, yes, that is the official nickname for my home state. 

Besides the cash crops of eggs, sheep, wheat, corn and such, we had a lilac bush so big you could ride a pony through the middle of bush. In fact our Shetland pony and a sheep used to play hide and seek and tag using the bush as shelter and hidey hole. The weeping willow tree that was as tall as our two-story farmhouse provided hours of play on the tire swing or shade for reading and cloud watching.

As  might be expected we also had a garden. It provided fresh vegetables for the dinner table and extras for canning and friends.  One of the many chores and tasks needed to keep a farm running was pulling weeds and hoeing the garden. As you can see I  am not a total stranger to gardening and plants. It is just that when it was my garden, my house plants, my landscaping, they died.

After my move south, for several seasons I tried container gardening. As to why containers were selected?  I couldn't decide where on the property to put the garden. Another consideration? Farm equipment and sibling labor were not available and I was not going to turn a plot over by fork and spade by myself.  Of course I didn't have any luck with the several tubs of tomato and pepper plants I attempted to grow.

This spring a local DIY (do-it-yourself) store gave away a different project each week and several family members decided to participate. The lobby pine given out died within three weeks. The milkweed seeds didn't get planted. That will happen when I build the butterfly house part of the project. 

First tomatoes harvested, 2021

Pepper and tomato plants were the next weeks project. For being the first in line the stock boy coordinating the distribution handed me a bush-type tomato plant. It was shortly afterwards paired with a vine type a family member donated to the project. The vine tomato is just now producing, Its fruit are the size of golf balls, a far cry from the large ones that were already harvested.

It has been very interesting experiment. The plant are on my covered back stoop. Besides watering (or keeping them from getting drowned in the summer storms), they were shifted against the house when they needed protection from high winds. Of course I did have to rely on someone who had successfully gardened in the locale as the climate and conditions are drastically different than what I was familiar with. (And so are the bugs, including a very aggressive green species.) So much time (think decades) had passed since those early childhood gardens, that research on the care and feeding of the two very different plants.

Authors are always told to write what you know. Which must be why none of my characters insisted they be master gardeners. So far the only one who has any real experience is Deneas whose tale is told in my current work in progress, Fire and Amulet (scheduled for release next year.) If any other of my characters are gardeners, they will probably be hydroponic engineers who are in trouble because of a brown thumb.

Here is what happened to her garden. To set the scene, it is the evening before she leaves on a journey from which she will probably never return.

An idea formed on how to thwart Karst from getting anything he hadn’t earned. Instead of sleep, she spent the cool candlemarks under the moon pulling the root vegetables that were ready for harvesting. The red fruit that hung heavy on the vine filled another large basket. Next she took the growing pots her mother had made or bartered for and by the time the moon was full overhead had half the garden in pots ready to be gifted to others in her village.

This experiment has given me a greater understanding of why some assisted living facilities have a raised garden for their residents. The daily routine of watering, snipping errant sucker vines, and monitoring for bugs and ripeness can be therapeutic.

As to whether I will try gardening again ? That remains to be seen. I prefer more interactive beings. Depending on their loquaciousness, you can actually hold conversations with a dog or cat. Our 18-year-old cat could quite clearly say "Now" and "Out." And when she's in a good mood, the husky I visit, can talk your ear off. Especially if you answer her.

 

 To purchase the Windmaster Novels: BWL

 ~Until next month, stay safe and read. Helen

Find out more about me and my novels at Journey to Worlds of Imagination.

Follow me online at Facebook, Goodreads, or Twitter.

Helen Henderson lives in western Tennessee with her husband. While she doesn’t have any pets in residence at the moment, she often visits a husky who have adopted her as one the pack.

Cool Water by Nancy M Bell

 

Chance's Way releases in September 2021. To find out more about Nancy's work please click on the cover. 

Water. It's something most people take for granted. Not me. I grew up in a house with a shallow well, every August it would go dry for a short period. There is nothing more heart stopping than turning on the tap and nothing comes out. The number of things we use water for without realizing it is mind blowing. Everything from washing dishes, to showers, to flushing the toilet...the list is endless.

Maybe I'm weird, but every time I  turn on the tap and water comes out give up a silent thanks to the earth who shares her life blood with me. In the shower I offer up a silent prayer of thanks for the luxury of having clean water pour over me, washing more than bodily dirt away. What would happen if the rivers ceased to flow? The lakes dry up into windblown plains? 

The sound of running taps or the pump kicking in and out will still wake me up from a sound sleep. Such are the lessons we learn in childhood. I currently live on a farm that depends on well water and I husband it carefully. I think of well water as 'living water' it is straight from the depths of the earth, cold enough to freeze my hands after a few minutes. It isn't treated or 'civilized' or 'purified' it is just what is meant to be....water. Life giving, life sustaining water.  

This summer is one of the driest and hottest we've had in many years here in southern Alberta. It's only June 28th and the grass is dry and brittle under my bare feet, the pavement hot enough to produce burns on unwary feet of humans and animals. The wide but shallow slough in the pasture is dark brown mud right now, the water gone from the surface but still lurking below waiting for a good rain to bring it back into the light.  

So, the next time you turn on a tap and water gushes forth, give a prayer of thanks and appreciate the bounty provided by nature. Fresh water is not a commodity to be traded or made money off of, regardless of what some think.  Fresh water is a give from the gods and goddesses, or God if you prefer. Not to be taken for granted and not to be taken lightly. Just for second imagine life without water...

Until next month, stay safe.  

Experiment ala Janet Lane Walters #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Mint Tea series #Opposites in Love series

 Opposites in Love

THE EXPERIMENT

 

Jude and I decided to do an experiment with my books. Since I write series, a lot of them we decided to start with one series. The Mint Tea series

 

So far, the series has done great, especially with my Amazon numbers. Murder and Mint Tea is free and what has happened is the rest of the books are being purchased. Also the number or ratings has climbed and some reviews added. Not all are great but reviews often aren’t.

 We have decided to do another series and see what we can do. The Aries Libra Connection is now free everywhere and finally hit Amazon. Now we will see what happens With this grouping.

 

With some luck they will take the same path that the Mint Tea Series ahs done. Then I will try a third time, this time with one of the fantasy series.

 

Such a nice birthday present for this 85 year old. Though as I tell the family, I am only one day older than I was yesterday.

 

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Life by numbers, by J.C. Kavanagh

The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends
Book 2 of the award-winning Twisted Climb series

Life.

Is it defined by your age?

By your experiences?

By your attitude? 

The Canadian Oxford Paperback Dictionary (yes, I'm a dinosaur) defines 'life' as:

1. the condition which distinguishes active animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, functional activity, and continual change preceding death

2. a) living things and their activity, b) human presence or activity, c) the human condition; existence

3. the period during which life lasts, or the period from birth to the present time or from the present time to death

There are nine more contextual definitions of the word 'life' in this dictionary. So then, what does life mean for you?

Is life for you getting up in the morning, putting in eight hours of work, taking care of kids, doing laundry, making meals, cleaning up, cleaning house, going to bed? Then repeat the next day?

Or is life a struggle - paying bills and groceries on overdraft, dealing constantly with an irritable spouse, having little or no encouragement from your boss/colleagues, and being unable to eyeball oneself in the mirror?

Well, life changes. One day it's good. One day, not so good.

In the last six months, I've been reminded of how fleeting life is. Friends and colleagues have passed away, suddenly. Young people who grew up with my children, now adults, are dying from cancer. Covid too, has claimed so many lives. 

Life is like the paint-by-number kits. Except you paint it yourself: you decide the tone, the colours and contrasts, and you decide your happiness. Your emotions. Your attitude. You pick the number, you paint it. It's what Jayden's dad tells her in The Twisted Climb series. He says, "You are the painter. Make your life a masterpiece."

Some people believe that life is defined by the number of years you've lived. I think it's defined by the number of lives you've touched. Good, bad or indifferent, we make an impact on everyone we meet and interact with.

So if there are numbers involved with life, here are my numbers to live by:

1. Smile because you can; it's contagious

2. Love. Love more. Just love.

3. Laugh, it's music for the soul

4. Be kind - to yourself

5. Be kind - to others

6. Be thankful for what you have

7. Enjoy nature's beauty and majesty

8. Gaze with awe to the heavens

9. Dream

10. Make a difference

11. Never give up

12. Be your masterpiece

J.C. Kavanagh, author of 

The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends (Book 2) 

voted BEST Young Adult Book 2018, Critters Readers Poll and Best YA Book FINALIST at The Word Guild, Canada 

AND 

The Twisted Climb,

voted BEST Young Adult Book 2016, P&E Readers Poll

Novels for teens, young adults and adults young at heart

Email: author.j.c.kavanagh@gmail.com

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