A List of Rejections

[The writer is basking in the afterglow of a great weekend spent camping with family and friends.] 

Today was a good day. I went to the bank this morning, stopped by the library, then to Kroger and bought my wife some red, white and blue flowers. We took the kids to Toys R Us where they picked up some fun things, then we all went to Cracker Barrel for a late lunch and then home for baths before I had to come to work -- I am here now in the DJ booth as I type these words.

At Cracker Barrel I saw a sign which read: "Life is Too Short to be Anything But Happy."

Amen. 

Jac Jemc is a talented writer from Chicago who has come to my attention recently. I haven't read much of her work, but she has a new book coming out entitled THE GRIP OF IT which has been praised by a number of reviewers I respect, one of whom is a good friend of many years, the novelist William J. Grabowski. I have a copy of the book ordered and I'm looking forward to reading it -- it sounds like a good one.

I was at the Dayton Metro Library's Northwest Branch this morning, as I said -- I stopped by on my way to the bank. While there, I printed out some information from a few different websites: a long article Jeff Vandermeer published in The Atlantic magazine back in 2015 about his Southern Reach trilogy... an interview from The White Review with Catherine Lacey, author of THE ANSWERS... and a short interview with and piece of flash fiction from Jac Jemc. The story is entitled "Lya Lys & Innokenty Smoktunovsky", and the interview is about a blog she maintains at her website, a blog made up largely of tracking rejections she receives from various publications.

The rejection list is not what you might think -- there's no whining or complaining here. Having your work rejected is simply part of the life of a writer, and the rejections (and acceptances) are documented in a simple and straightforward fashion.

You can see Jac Jemc's Rejection List here

You can see William J. Grabowski's blog The Night Run here

You can pre-order Jac Jemc's new novel THE GRIP OF IT here

You can read Jeff Vandermeer's article I mentioned here

currently reading: gingerly approaching BIRD BOX by Josh Malerman
currently watching: various things on my 2-week free trial of Hulu
currently listening to: my 900-song Spotify playlist, "Spermatikos Logos".