Every writer knows that rejection is part of the game.  Gone With the Wind was rejected 38 times, Harry Potter 12.  The Tale of Peter Rabbit got so many that Beatrix Potter self published it, and so on.  These old fables of failure that led to success are the warm blankets and bowls of chocolate bon-bons with which writers curl up after every breezy brush-off email, every cold form letter that comes addressed in one’s own handwriting in an SASE.  Part of being a writer  (so the old wisdom says) is learning not to let rejection hurt.  But the truth is, part of being a writer is coming to terms with the fact that you will spend much of your life feeling like a piece of Juicy Fruit that someone chewed up and spat out in the middle of a freeway to get stuck to the bottom of an all-weather Goodyear, where you will be rolled over a few hundred times per mile for as long as you continue putting words in sequential order.  The trick is to somehow convince yourself that being a fruit-flavored piece of rubber encrusted with asphalt and someone else’s saliva is a dignified existence.  If your imagination is not equal to that task, you probably shouldn’t be a writer.

Cheers, my fellow Juicy Fruits.  At least it’s easy for wads of used up gum to stick together.

Karen Ullo is the author of Jennifer the Damned, now available from Wiseblood Books.  To find out more, go to www.karenullo.com.