Once upon a time, I wrote a story titled ‘The Wind
and the Sun’. The actual year I wrote
it, I don’t know, but I started marketing it in 2012. It had an early success; a market said yes,
they would like to publish it. Then they
said they were having financing problems and then they said they were
closing.
This seemed to embodied success, so I continued to
submit the story to other markets. So many markets that I
filled a page in my marketing records, but never mind, there would be someone
that wanted this story. It had happened
already, it was only circumstance that stopped publication. After a while I took the story and did a
rewrite, my writing skills were sharper now, and it was a good story after all.
I submitted it to more markets, until it seemed I
had no markets left. This is never
actually true, because I found a market out of Ontario that received The Wind
and the Sun by Liz Betz this spring. The
story of my story progressed and eventually I got a rejection email from that
market. That was it, then, I thought,
until I saw a submission call for an anthology about neighbors. That seemed to fit, and with renewed optimism
I submitted my little story again. For
the 36th time, a hopeful writer (me) sent the story away.
They said no and I’m done. Done enough to blog about being done. Done enough to have included this story of
the story in an email to my writer friend Linda. Done enough to title a folder the Done File
and put The Wind and the Sun inside.
I feel a little sad; I am proud of the story. The Wind and the Sun had a bit of my mother
within its main character and it had an atmosphere of small towns that seemed
true. Sorry it isn’t going to have a
real audience, unless those 36 rejecting editors count. Maybe they do. The End.
