When you say you will submit to the submission process, it means you gotta give in all the way.  Surrender to the entire spectrum.  Sometimes things don’t go the way you’d envisioned and that’s just part of the experience.

I read somewhere about a writer that kept a little monument by his desk of all of his “rejection” letters.  They were his trophies, a testament to the process.

So I’ll post here to the world, the evidence of my writer’s journey.  My marker in the road.  I wouldn’t be holding a letter saying ‘thank you and best of luck’ unless I’d taken steps onto the publishing path.  There’s rich value in the act of trying, living fully, taking the chance that I might not “win” or be received.  This aspect of the artist’s path is what inspires me the most.

Ok, maybe I’m trying to put a happy spin on something that simply is a bummer.  Everyone wants the prize (and the grand winner of this contest gets five grand!).  But truthfully, I’m not deterred.  I truly feel the value in the experience of writing.  Feeling.  Creating.  Expressing.  Sharing.  Who knows if anyone ‘gets’ it or even cares.  Yet something compels me.

By submitting, there is a surrender.  A release.  No longer hoarding it in a journal on my shelf, this process completes the circle through the risk of sharing.  My ultimate hope is that it would inspire you to express yourself fully and freely – no matter if your creation were judged to be a winner or a loser.  The winning is in the doing of it!  If there are bonus  perks at the end (being able to afford to travel and write more would be nice) then bring it on.

Until then, I’ve got more submissions circulating and I’ll embrace my ‘best of luck’ letter as a blessing.

So best of luck to every soul that didn’t get what they thought they wanted. And more power to the amazing things that awaited them instead – rewards of which they hadn’t even dreamed.