WEEKLY WRITER'S PATH #7
THE WIND HITS MY BACK fiercely as I begin to walk west. My jeans feel like the thinnest cotton against the backs of my legs and I know that the biting cold will be stinging my face when I make the eventual turn toward home. I give myself the option to turn around and not walk today, but moving forward—inertia—is easier than backtracking.
FedEx returned a manuscript today, the first rejection of the year. I immediately did what every writing magazine, consultant, or online publishing guideline tells you to do: I noted the return, read the nice letter, and filed the papers away, making the manuscript ready for its next outing. But I still felt hollow inside. It was what the nice agent wrote: “I just didn’t fall in love with it.”
Of course she said some good things, too, that I must continue on and I would find the right person to work with, she was sure. I am sure, too. I have to find the person who would read the first line of DIZZY SUSHI—The first thing I saw in Japan was a corpse.—and fall head over heels in love, love, love. It will have to be some kind of Buddhist, don’t you think?
Until that day, I continue to walk in the cold wind, now turning directly into such a force that I have to breathe with my mouth open and my head bent down to my chest. Until that day, I will keep sending out the manuscript, putting one foot in front of the other, doing all the things that come crowding into my life.
So I thought it would be a good time to take inventory of my accomplishments, record some major and not-so-major events since I finished my regular, 50-hour-plus work week last November 11th (93 days ago) and decided to start focusing more on my writing:
• Wrote a 1500-word birth story
• Finished a 104,000 word travel story (DIZZY SUSHI)
• Sent query letters to one publisher and one agent
• Sent the manuscript of DIZZY SUSHI to two agents
• Had the manuscript returned from one agent
• Submitted one nonfiction story online
• Started a 16-week marketing class
• Applied for 26 jobs; interviewed for one; called back for one
• Applied for Unemployment benefits and received them
• Applied for Medicaid and have not received it
• Fractured my foot
• Caught the flu
• Suffered a sinus infection
• Started a blog
• Bought 8 books
• Read 9 books
• Reached Level 15 in Neverwinter Nights (5 Bard, 5 Wizard, 5 Rogue)
• Made an FBI Look-Alike logo in 16 hours for a feature film
• Gave my husband the bills to do after ten years of doing them
• Searched for my first lover’s photographs on the internet
• Filed paperwork for my own design company
• Started meetings for a non-profit design company
• Attended one night of theatre
• Started a carrot patch
• Made three bird baths which I water daily
• Taught my daughter to drive
• Taught myself GoLive and finished my website
• Registered six URLs
• Renewed six URLs
• Lost one really good URL
• Increased traffic to my website from 5 unique visits in December to 150 in January
• Called one of my senators
• Emailed one congressman
• Signed one online petition
• Called the governor’s office once
• Removed my name from every Democratic email newsletter I ever subscribed to
• Became a member of NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals)
• Scored 50% on the Ultimate Photoshop Quiz (http://www.photoshopuser.com/quiz/)
• Made glorious love to my husband not nearly often enough
• Remembered only seven dreams
• Consulted the I Ching only once
• Walked the dunes at White Sands with my daughter
• Watched a Stealth Bomber land
• Celebrated my youngest son’s 9th birthday
• Wrote 300 pages in my journal
• Wrote 7 Weekly Writer’s Paths
• Went for a walk nearly every day
