Romancing the Genres

What’s the best thing about blogging? That’s easy. No rejections.

You get nice friendly comments—supportive people saying encouraging things. No emails with the core message: “…Thank you for your submission…blah, blah, blah…but we don’t want your stinking stuff.” Okay, so I didn’t quote the message verbatim, but I’ve become adept at reading between the RTF boilerplate. Some agent or editor didn’t want my stuff—stinking or not.


Blogging provides wonderful, positive reinforcement—a world wide (or www anyway) community of people who understand, who get you. But there’s a downside to all these good vibes.


“Are you nuts?” you ask. “Do you prefer abuse?”


“Maybe if I explain my process for dealing with rejection, you’ll agree those negative responses aren’t so bad. Typically my methods of dealing with rejection include:


a) Eating a pint of Ben and Jerry’s
b) Eating a pint of Ben and Jerry’s—without a spoon
c) Molding a pint of Ben and Jerry’s into the shape of the rejecter’s head, scalding it with hot fudge, and then eating it
d) Molding a pint of Ben and Jerry’s into the shape of the rejecter’s mouse pad, deep frying it in a vat of oil, and eating it with Oreos
e) Printing the rejection, folding the paper to create an origami rifle and using the darn thing to hold up the Ben and Jerry’s truck.


Joking aside, blogging with the Genre-istas has been an amazing experience. Primarily because you—the reader—are listening to us, talking to us, riding the genre train with us. Really listening is one of the greatest gifts you can give, so I really appreciate the opportunity to be heard. Thank you for allowing us into your cyberspace.

This month, I’m giving you permission to do something different. Go ahead, blast my post. Tell me I’m full of…B&J. ‘Cause this post has made me hungry.