Rejected

Yeah, I've heard it all before: don't give up. You'll be rejected so many times before you're published, etc. But I don't think I can be a writer.  Maybe I'm simply not good, and that's okay I guess.  A blow to my ego, but okay.  I don't write to be published. I write to make the voices in my head shut up.

But I wrote that story with such joy and really thought it would at least place in the top three.  Not only did it not place in the top three, it didn't even get to the reader's choice part.  So, do I suck?  When I was at the convention I listened to Trisha Goyer say to read the magazine ahead of time and taylor my writing to their style in order to be published, but....I don't want to. 

More important than being published to me, is being me.  If nothing else, I write to be real. I'm not perfect, and I might even be a little nuts, but I'm real.  And this is me.  Sometimes I like to write exaggerated stories for no other reason than to make people laugh.  Other times it's to tell a story.  Sometimes it's to get something off my chest or preserve a memory.  But it's for my benefit, not to fit in a mold set by others. 

I'm doubting myself tonight, and yet, I'm not. I enjoyed writing my Trail Tales Number I.  Since it wasn't published, would you like to read it now?