Life's Too Short to Hold Yourself Back

Norman Rockwell's "Girl in the Mirror"

Stephanie, a former student of mine, recently commented in a Facebook post that life is too short.
Wow--needed to hear that.

I had been going through a low time, discouraged, wondering why I keep trying to achieve my writing goals--going two steps forward, three steps back, etc. Typical pity party. I've worked my way through it, but it will most likely happen again. :-)                  

A few days ago, I got in the car and plugged my iPod into the car's radio. It was set on "shuffle" so random songs played. I must add that my husband has loaded hundreds of songs onto both our iPods from many, many genres. We have very eclectic tastes in music. The first song began and it hit me between the eyes.

"Little voice in the back of my head keeps telling me that I'm not good enough, not strong enough. Little girl somewhere in my mind under the covers cause she's too scared of everything to try anything. She talks all that trash telling me I should just give up. I look in the mirror put on my mascara and tell her to just shut up. Cause life's too short to hate yourself to try to be someone else, so quit wasting your time. The days go by way too fast, to let anything hold you back. So don't cry anymore cause life's too short to hate yourself..."

Thanks, Kellie Pickler for getting inside my head with this song.

Make a List and Check it Twice

In the last few days I have sent out three manuscripts to three editors. I've sent manuscripts out probably twenty-five or thirty times since I became serious about writing for children. Why is it so scary? You would think it would be the fear that one of those editors might not like what I've written. Nope, that's not the part that makes my stomach hurt. At this point I know everyone isn't going to like my story. I just want one to like it. What worries me are the little details that are big no-no's in submitting your work.

1. Don't misspell the editor's name. I've done that. Last summer, while on pain medication after major surgery, I completely changed the editor's first name. How embarrassing. The frustrating part is I discovered the mistake about 5 minutes AFTER I pressed send on the electronic submission.

2. Don't forget the SASE. I've done that too.

3. Don't put one editor's name on the cover letter with the wrong publishing company name and address. I have not done this but it has almost happened.

There are so many more goofs that make me nervous just before dropping my hard work in the mail chute or hitting the send button. Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables says, "I promise I’ll never do it again. That’s the one good thing about me. I never do the same wrong thing twice." I've learned to make a list of things to check and I read my cover letters out loud to my husband.

When it comes right down to it, if an editor wants to publish my work, maybe they will overlook my little goof-ups and my nerves are not going to keep me from submitting.