Today was full of mixed thoughts. For one, I started teaching my new kiddos at College For Kids. Not to brag, but quite a few of them said this was going to be the best class. I agree, I think they’re all going to love it. I have plans to set it all up on this website under a folder. So that they can go show their parents–hopefully they will.  I think making them proud of it is the best way to make sure they remember some of what they learn.

On the other side of the emotion spectrum. I got home from work to an email letting me know that one of the agents I submitted my book to wasn’t interested. I’ve been bracing myself for months for my first rejection, but it sucked none-the-less. But oh well, at least it’s over. Now I don’t have to worry about it anymore. I have a list of new agents to send it to already. Perhaps one will like it, and if not, maybe they’ll like my next book. Whether it sells or not, this book is a lot of fun to have. It will always serve as a memory of my nephews’ youth.

My assassin book is going well. It’s moving up steadily during the first week of writing. I plan to keep that going on till November, when it should be done. I’m estimating the middle of that month. That is at a goal of 5,000 words a week, which I’m sure I can pass some weeks.

I’m closing this with a quote from David Morrell, one of my favorite writer’s. It’s from his book, THE SUCCESSFUL NOVELIST. One I have read more than once. I turned to it tonight after reading the rejection and it made me smile.

Any type of story is only a means–what a writer does with it is what matters. You’ll find it revealing if, after asking yourself, “Why do I want to be a writer?”, you ask yourself, “Why do I want to write this particular kind of fiction?”

“Because I need to.”

“Why do you need to?”

If you follow the logic in the progression of these questions, if you pay attention to the ferret that’s gnawing inside you, you’ll have a subject matter that’s your own. You’ll also approach your favorite type of story in a way that has special meaning to you. You’ll be an original and not an imitator. Because you’re true to yourself. Because you use your unique one-of-a-kind psyche as your guide. It may be that you’ll never be one of those twenty-five hundred writers who earn a living at it. But that was never the point in the first place. You didn’t become a writer to make money. You became a writer because your ferret and your daydreams/nightmares forced you to. If you do achieve financial success, all the better. But in the meantime, you did what you knew you must, and your reward was–only now is it a valid answer–the satisfaction of self-expression, of being creative.