If Rejections ever get you down...

CELEBRATION OF REJECTION
From the pages of, How to Get a Literary Agent by Michael Larsen

1. 112 Books Louis L’Amour though he received rejections. He received 200 rejections before he sold his first novel. During the last forty years Bantam has shipped nearly three hundred million of his one hundred twelve books, making him their biggest-selling author.
2. 600+ rejection slips wall paper Jack London’s home.
3. 774 rejection slips for John Creasy who went on to publish under 13 pseudonyms 564 books
4. 14 rejected Pearl S Buck finally published The Good Earth
5. 20 rejections didn’t stop Jonathan Livingston Seagull’s publication and you know how famous it became, written by Richard Bach
6. 40 rejections before she sold her first book didn’t stop Mary Higgins Clark
7. 200 rejections Roots by Alex Haley was published.
8. 15 publishers and 30 agents rejected John Grisham’s A Time to Kill before it was finally published.
9. 375 publishers rejected naked in Deccan over seven years before the Baltimore Sun deemed it a classic.
10. Dr Seuss – 24 in his file of rejections before his first books was published
11. 8 years after the novel Steps won the National Book Award, Jerzy Kosinski allowed it to be send out again with a name change to 13 agents and 14 publishers – all of them rejected it, including Random House, which originally published it. Proves the plight of new writers trying to get recognition or a publishing contract.
12. The New Yorker rejected a short story by Saul Bellow after he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

So there you have it. Don’t let a little pile of rejections stop you from persevering in your desire to be a published author. The three P’s of getting published Polish, Persist, persevere.

Words - trite or true

"As a writer, teacher and former editor, I wince in horror. Spelling isn't "if it feels good, do it." Spelling is precise, and if it isn't, the writer comes across as incompetent, and the manuscript gets tossed into the reject pile more times than not."

There are as many views on this topic as their are colors in Crayola's biggest new box and more--blended, shaded and just plain interpreted in someone's native tongue...So what's the answer?

"I often use spellings that have some meaning to me. That is : I always use grey in describing a soft color as in grey velvet but when something is ominous like a darkening sky I use gray. To me blond is just a haircolor but blonde is a person with great beauty. We as writers have the option of using whatever spelling that conveys the meaning of our words.Go for it." says FoxLady, Dee Carey

So it sounds like we can't just use what we chose - but I'm all for using concise, precise words to say what I mean. I've been a blonde all my life - well until I got some grey (or is that gray?) mixed in there - I learned a gray squirrel is gray -- a cloud can be gray - or white and fluffy...but does that make me right? Only in the country where I use it -- USA - the Brits have a whole 'nuther point of view and spelling for a lot of words which are perfectly correct over there. So, who's to be the judge?

I guess, when it doubt check the latest issue of The Associated Press Stylebook, Chicago Manual of Style or some other source to be sure you are using correct spelling. If your editor says -- wrong word spelling choice -- you better believe you should go with her/him...if you want to be published by that particular publication or with that publisher that is.

But then again, that is just my humble opinion on a very broadly discussed topic. What do you think?