mXm • blog

I’m honoured to have my flashFiction piece • c o c o o n •  piece selected and featured in the newest publication of Syncopation Library.

When calls for submissions went out late last fall there was a simple criteria for consideration – the document/story must contain reference to the guitar.

Here is the link: :

I hope you enjoy it. One of my readers has already requested ‘more’ of the character….perhaps, maybe…..

‘Tis that

Today

123123

Get it?

Will not happen again, ever – never.

And so where does that bring us? Where has it brought me?

I know – I’ve been remiss in maintenance efforts. Non-existent pretty much – but, New Year – NewLeaf.

As of tomorrow I will do my utmost to post regularly, once a week. Hah!

We’ll have to wait and see, right?

It’s not like I’m not busy, of course.

Hard at work, writing. These days primarily focused on Book 2 of my Jim Steiner novels.
Heck, in the last 3 days I wrote 9,000 words.
Awesome, yes?
Tough pace – I’m now at 45,547 words – only about 50K to go. If I can keep up this pace I should see completion in about 3 weeks.
Let’s say end January. First draft. Then edits. Then what?

No idea. Have little or no faith in traditional publishing traction. Have no faith in self-publishing. So, what to do?
Carry on – move ahead.

Heck, not as if I’m lacking for writing projects – ‘The End of Oregon’, ‘Princess and the Jake’, ‘Veil of Tears’, ‘Twisted Roads’ and ‘The Art of BlackCat Moon’…….those are all works-in-progress – all novels in various stages of completion.

So, good luck with that, eh?

Yup

Back to work – come see me here next week – should have a new update then.

And, by the way, almost forgot – ‘The Thinn Man’, a serialized cliffhanger, is available to read on my Patreon page – www.Patreon.com/mxmoore. It’s a fun quasi-romantic crime romp – a new chapter added weekly.

And one of my poems, r o l l e r   c o a s t e r was published in:  Killer Nashville magazine, November 2023 issue
              (https://www.killernashville.com/issues/november-2023)

And, even more – additional pieces – flash fiction, poetry – are slated for release in other publications in February. I’ll keep you informed.

Promise.

perhaps it’s of little concern – then again, perhaps not. I read recently that 35,000 new books are published every week in the USA.

Notwithstanding, most likely, self-published initiatives.

The pandemic spawned in the masses not only the raison to turn to writing the great novel – it provided the time within which

such efforts could move forward.

If one is on FB one can search for, and find, numerous groups that are focused on writers, writing. Many are dedicated to the world of Amazon/Kindle.

Thousands and thousands of hopefuls. The following might give succour to many:

1. John Grisham’s first novel was rejected 25 times.
2. Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen (Chicken Soup for the Soul) received 134 rejections.
3. Beatrix Potter had so much trouble publishing The Tale of Peter Rabbit, she initially had to self-publish it.
4. Robert Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance) received 121 rejections before it was published and went on to become a best seller.
5. Gertrude Stein spent 22 years submitting before getting a single poem accepted.
6. Judy Blume, beloved by children everywhere, received rejections for two straight years.
7. Madeline L’Engle received 26 rejections before getting A Wrinkle in Time published—which went on to win the
   Newbery Medal and become one of the best-selling children’s books of all time.
8. Frank Herbert’s Dune was rejected 20 times before being published and becoming a cult classic.
9. Stephen King received dozens of rejections for Carrie before it was published (and made into a movie!).*
10. James Lee Burke’s novel The Lost Get-Back Boogie was rejected 111 times over a period of nine years and,
    upon its publication by Louisiana State University Press in 1986, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Hopefully the forenoted might provide a degree of relief, beyond it being a reality check.

Other helpful fact-checked statistics:

So – major takeaway? If you have the stamina – IF you have the determination, IF you are ridiculously persistent,
you may have a chance at being.  p u b l i s h e d …..which, by the way, is not at all connected to whether or not one becomes
a financial success.

Ken Follet (Eye of the Needle has written 44 books. His current net worth, all from earnings as an author, is approximately, $40 million.

J.K. Rowling, however, is the wealthiest of all writers with a net worth of $1 billion!

Don’t give up

For those of us who have creative aspirations – be it in music, drama, writing – rejection is the primary constant as we all try to peck away at gaining acceptance, making progress, making money, even. (Goodness! Who is in this for the money??? I’m shocked!)

The previous post shows the rejection letter sent to Alice Walker, author of the Color Purple. I will be posting a few others soon.

But this news feature caught my eye. It’s all about persistence, perseverance and simply just not giving up.
Be that this may or may not be the very best novel or story ever written – is not the point – the point is, she just didn’t give up.

And so : :

Her story is worth reading if for no other reason than, ‘if she can do it, we can do it’. . . . . right?

With virtually no prior writing training or experience, but seemingly just a good idea, she made it happen for herself.

Read the whole article here

mXm : : Rejection is the currency of any creator – of music, of art, sculpture, writing • Dear John letters as they are also known. Personally, I think that writing efforts, writers, authors – given the nature of their craft, bare their souls in attempting to describe passion, pain, anger, fear – all the human emotions – and in the process of the actual writing, the conveying of such, are required to expose themselves – leave themselves vulnerable . . . . and the subsequent rejection by publishers, agents – the public, leaves scars – sometimes deep scars. Over the next days / weeks even, this page will carry visual copies of actual rejection letters sent to writers – who pressed on, persevered – and became world famous in spite of rejection.

This is the actual rejection letter sent to Alice Walker.

The following is written by : : Emily Temple, who is the managing editor at Lit Hub. Her first novel, The Lightness, was published by William Morrow/HarperCollins in June 2020

Tis (almost) the season for resolutions. If you’re a writer, here’s an idea: resolve to get rejected. 100 times this year, if you’re lucky. After all, some very famous books (and authors) began their careers at the bottom of the NO pile. To inspire you to keep on writing and submitting, here are some of the most rejected books I could dig up.

Of course, this list is incomplete, and I’ve given preference to books that were rejected but are now well-known and widely loved. (Books that were rejected many times because they were pretty mediocre are just not as interesting.) Even with the higher-profile books, I discounted those with numbers I couldn’t verify, or those that weren’t specific enough—for instance, it looks like Margaret Mitchell’s oft-repeated 38 rejections is a myth; Alex Haley may have gotten “hundreds” of rejections before publishing Roots, but they weren’t all necessarily for the novel; ditto Kate DiCamillo’s 473 rejections before Because of Winn-Dixie; Eimear McBride heard nothing but no for A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing for 7 years, but I don’t know if she got ten nos or a hundred. Some authors, like Beatrix Potter and Proust, got so many rejections that they decided to self-publish—and good thing they did—but I don’t have numbers on those either. If you do, give strength to your fellow rejectees and add on to the list in the comments.

and Momma told us . . . . 

1971 • Al Waxman, the much loved and remarkable Canadian actor
appeared in this TV commercial for Kleenex.

It was a huge success in terms of the public’s adoption of most all aspects
of the tongue-in-cheek humour it embraced.

‘get plenty of rest’ . . . . . . . indeed – but more than anything, the last line,
‘and Momma told us to stay inside’ has stayed with me, in my memory,
these past 50 years.

Did Momma foresee the pandemic? Of course not – but there is, shall
we say, an aptness – to the message.

I hope you enjoy this – I still get the giggles.

Trust me!