8 Steps to Taking Rejection in the New Year

I’d like to introduce you today to Jennifer Reinharz, a fellow children’s book writer and super hero. If you spend some time at “Red Said What?” you’ll agree, she is indeed super AND my hero. In a recent blogpost, Jennifer shared her remedy for what we all must face at some time or other, that dreaded affliction known as Rejection. It’s all part of the dance. Isn’t it? So, let’s waltz on…

Red said what?'s avatarRed Said What?

Four years ago I was a part-time teaching, newbie mother of two ready for more; more from the “real” me and ready to embrace a creative energy suffocated by Urb-Burb expectations, thirty-something responsibility, and motherhood.

One December morning while ushering Bubbe down the driveway en route to my work gig and his Fours class at our local preschool, an original story title dropped into my head.  The words sounded like something straight out of a child’s picture book.

I have been writing ever since.

I get great joy from piecing together a picture book story.  However, as a Fours mommy, yoga buddy, and KidLit publishing veteran kindly forewarned me at the outset, “Next to poetry, the most difficult thing to get published is the picture book.”

Translation?  Learn to take rejection.

Aah, yes.  Experiencing rejection from literary agents and editors when one is attempting to traditionally publish one’s work comes…

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SPONTANEITY, THE SPICE OF LIFE

If spontaneity is the spice of life,
our little road trip on Sunday was a mediterranean street festival on wheels –

a true feast for the tongue, delight for the nose, treat for the eye, and a joy for the spirit.

 

 

The first stop on our adventure was  Continue reading

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THE STOWAWAY

photo (26)Three hours in, and it’s a crapshoot as to whose self-control has disintegrated faster than tissue paper kissed by a lit match.

From where, oh where
did that blast of vile wind spring forth?

What insidious organ expelled you from its moonless abyss?

Or did you escape intentionally?
Continue reading

Posted in ADVENTURES, HUMOR, POEMS, TRAVEL/PHOTO Themes | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

ONE MORE REASON TO ‘TWAS

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‘Twas the 6th of January, one more reason to feast,
‘Twas not only Little Christmas, but the birthday of our beast.

Five years ago, she’d been placed here on earth
Apparently, with intentions
of spreading merriment and mirth.

For why else would a dog be so quirky and hell-bent Continue reading

Posted in ADVENTURES, EVENTS, FAMILY, HUMOR, LUCY and JAZZIE, POEMS | Tagged , , , , | 12 Comments

NO WORDS, but for three

Rest In Peace

Posted in EVENTS, VIEW FROM MY SOAP BOX | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

‘TWAS THE NIGHT OF WINTER SOLSTICE

‘Twas three nights before Christmas, the fifth of Hanukkah,
four from Galungan, and still five ’til Kwanzaa.
‘Twas two months since Muharram and India’s festival of light,
when sun snuggled down into earth’s longest night.
Continue reading

Posted in ADVENTURES, Essay, HOLIDAYS, POEMS, TEACHINGS FROM THE FAR NORTH | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

A Sixties Family Christmas

While I’m away this week, I hope you’ll enjoy Tony Quarrington’s look back in time as much as I did… A Sixties Family Christmas.

Posted in ADVENTURES, FAMILY, HOLIDAYS, HUMOR | 2 Comments

SEVEN CHICKS ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON

We’re seven savvy chicks, soon to be eight.
We write on one Sunday each month
Over pie, peanuts, even haggis,
To prompts while we sip tea and munch.

Whether foul of mood or weather, we meet,
Pens firing reflections onto the sheet,
Heart-wrenching, gut-churning, ofttimes offbeat.
It’s always a welcome retreat.

Take this, for example. Continue reading

Posted in ADVENTURES, Essay, HUMOR, WRITING CHALLENGES | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

THANKS FOR THE MEMORY

Same place, different holiday, but you get the idea. ca. 1972

Same place, different holiday, but you get the idea. ca. 1972

Once upon a Thanksgiving Day, the only room large enough to host the Lambo family was in my grand-parents basement that had been fitted with a second kitchen just for such occasions. The oblong, wood-panelled room sported a bar at the far end fashioned from the same panelling that covered the cinder-block walls. Its red speckled linoleum top ran just about the width of the room under a casement window that looked onto the shrub lined cement driveway. 

A few cousins, my younger sister, and I often played behind the bar, rummaging through an assorted collection of treasures—pirate ship embossed coasters, gold-rimmed wine glasses, wrinkled sepia photos of the old country, and glass cocktail stirrers topped with fruits, animals, and, close your eyes now, slim naked women. Continue reading

Posted in ADVENTURES, CHILDHOOD, FAMILY, HOLIDAYS, HUMOR | Tagged , , , , , | 26 Comments

If

If
no one sees my tears,

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Does it mean I do not cry? Continue reading

Posted in ADVENTURES, POEMS, ROAD TRIP, TEACHINGS FROM THE FAR NORTH, TRAVEL/PHOTO Themes, VIEW FROM MY SOAP BOX | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments