You Don't Hear About the Rejections

Everyone who writes (and submits) gets rejected. A fact of life. Does that make it hurt any less when it's YOUR literary creation that gets the thumbs-down? I'd love to know how you all deal with this. Maybe we need a ritual, a voodoo dance or something, to get us back on track. Do you break down? Throw something? Kick the dog? (Hey, don't kick that dog!) How do you cope with rejection and keep on writing?

Poet Perseveres

Good news from Sharon Leiter: "My poetry manuscript, 'The Dream of Leaving,' much revised over the years, was a finalist in the Main Street Rag contest and, as such, will be published by Main Street Rag in the fall. At last. Hurrah."

"Harrah," indeed!

To find out more about Sharon Leiter, check out her entry in our LLL "Who's Who."

Jenny Gardiner in today's Washington Post

You have got to read this article in today's Post. Jenny's teenaged son went to Europe and baited pickpockets with an exposed wallet. The apple didn't fall far from this tree: Kyle Gardiner is as wacky and creative as his mother!

Deirdra McAfee is Workin' It!

Here's what our Richmond Literary Lady has been up to:

• Got an artist's grant for a month's residency at the Vermont Studio Center (September).
• Won the sole fiction scholarship given by The Gettysburg Review Conference for Writers (June).
• Won the H. E. Francis Award for the Short Story, which includes a thousand-dollar prize.

Website Insights

Are you a Literary Lady with a website? Or maybe someone who'd like a website, but you're not sure how to go about it? Elizabeth Howard asked me for advice about this the other day, and I was no help at all. (My son Waldo does my site for free and charges other people more than the average writer could afford.)

So, we're looking for advice: How much should one expect to pay? Do you look for someone online? Should that someone be in Charlottesville, or does it matter? What other tips can you pass along?

[posted by Janis Jaquith]