I'm pleased to announce that Healer will be published on Acidic Fiction in the near future.
Jillian is tired of being bound to her healing gift. When a desperate mother with a critically wounded child invades her room, she discovers that her gift is both a curse and her salvation.
Healer came into being four years ago. I don't recall the exact circumstances except that it was around the time I got my first acceptance on a short story and I'd figured out that those came far more often than on novels. So I'd started writing more shorts.
Why did it take so long for Healer to find a home? Shortly after completing the story, NaNoWriMo 2010 hit and I was thrown into novel mode. When December came around, I sent the story off to a few sets of eyes who looked it over, made suggestions, and then those suggestions were implemented or not depending on how much I agreed with them. With high hopes, I threw the story into submissions.
After a couple form rejections, I was disheartened, set the story aside and started working on others, along with revising a couple novels. The story languished in my back burner file for a long time.
Over the next couple years, as more of my shorts found published homes, I came to the realization that a rejection merely meant that I hadn't submitted to the right market. Unless the story really did need lots of work. I will admit to occasionally being wooed by sparkly new stories and sending them off before they are truly ready. That fact often becomes apparent upon the third form rejection when I read through the story to find out what these editors are missing about my beautiful, awesome story. "Ooooh", I say as I remove my beer goggles and back away slowly while reaching for my back burner file.
When I eventually did take Healer out of the file, dusted it off, and reworked the rough parts, it was ready to head back out into submissions. And here we are. Acceptance.
In summary: Rejection doesn't mean your story sucks, it just means you haven't found the right market. Unless your story really does suck, in which case, fix it, and then get it out there and find the right market.
Congratulations! Sounds like a cool idea for a story.
ReplyDeleteI used to get really upset by rejections. So upset that for a long time I didn't bother submitting to anyone. Now, I just figure what you did: so they didn't like it, so what?
I do appreciate the ones that at least provide a bit of feedback. That's helpful to get.
Feedback is awesome. Both Shimmer and Bastion have been great for helpful comments, if you happen to have anything that fits what they're looking for.
DeleteCongratulations Jean. Have you ever tried deliberately setting a story aside for a while before moving on with the process? Maybe a bit of distance would help pick out the "Oooh!" moments before you start submitting :)
ReplyDeleteCertainly. Stories get put in a folder for weeks to months before seeing other eyeballs. That doesn't mean my disillusioned sparkly love of their words dies with all of them. ;)
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