We had an old piano from the early 1900’s. It was Auntie Margarets’ piano. Nobody in the family can play. We tinkered on it. That was about it. But one day I played with a few notes and wrote a song, a lullaby.

Here are the words:

Close your eyes.
Stay by your dreams.
Find and you’ll see.
No need to be afraid.

Moombeams dance
while we trail with
the stars.
To a fanciful place
that never seems far.

So hush all your tears.
Never to fear.
For I’ll always be near,
till the morn-in.

…The last chord on the piano is a C note. DING!

HAVE A SWEET DREAMY DAY EVERYBODY…

It’s Saturday night. And I am TIRED. But it’s done. Grosset & Dunlap made suggestions to improve my manuscript. The SCBWI Publication Guide said to write a thank you letter. And the truth is … the revisions were exactly what the story needed. I AM thankful.

Now the thank you letter is on its way to New York. Working day and night on the revisions, I pushed myself to write a better story. I wrote a new introductory chapter and new concluding chapter and re-edited the middle accordingly. This whole thing has been a new experience for me. But it’s done something else.

I did exactly what they suggested I do. And so much more. But what if after all this, they reject it? They say it’s not good enough, marketable enough, smart or clean enough? How awful would that be?

I’m willing to do more revisions. Really, I need to get a grip. It’s Saturday night. I just wrote 3000 words in two days. Yes. It’s Saturday night and what am I doing?

Still writing.

I have this blog about rejection letters. Everyday the postbox brings cards, bills, letters, junk mail and I wait. But wait. Yesterday everything went topsy turvy. I got an SASE returned to me from Grosset & Dunlap, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers in New York. So I joked, “Hey another rejection to write about on my blog!”

I pulled into the garage and sat in the drivers’ seat for a minute. Opening the envelope I see that the letter is personal. Oh good another personal rejection! It’s better than the dreaded form letter. EEEEK!

But wait. No. It’s not just a personal rejection letter. It’s longer, has more type printed on it. Why, there’s editorial feedback for my manuscript. The editorial intern has detailed suggestions on how the characters, storyline can be improved. WHAT? No way. I was flabbergasted!

This means something according to the SCBWI Publication Guide. I hope this to be the beginning of my move out of the shadows…this is the next step. I’ll tell more tomorrow.

Years ago, my friends’ sister had a baby. I wrote a poem. Here’s a rewrite of it:

A handsome young man, so very fine.
Sat on a rock by a creek bed one time.
Took a deep breath of air, clean and new.
Listened to birds sing their song in the dew.

A stranger walked a pathway of stone.
Heard in the distance, just down the road
the young man’s chorus with birds in the trees.
Changed directions down toward the creek.

The young man and stranger met on that day.
Stranger asked, “Where are you from? Where do you stay?”
Young man replied, “I come from long in the past.
I stay in my home, down this stone path.”

Stranger replied, “That was my world too, you see.
A few thousand years before you came to be.
I lived during a time of great conquest indeed.
A soilder, a poet, a musician and even a KING.”

“My name is David,” he said.
Young man was speechless instead,
instead of saying what he wanted to say,
how lovely to meet Prince David this way.

Soon they spoke as old friends.
Young man accepted an invitation from him.
To a musical symphony right around the bend.
“Be sure that your whole family does attend.”

A paradise story, soon to be true.
Though … who is the YOUNG MAN?

Could it be YOU?

I am happy to see the Jan/Feb issue of the SCBWI Bulletin. My nonfiction article, “Charlie and the Symphony” is mentioned in the PEOPLE section. It’s just a blurb. But a blurb is better than nothing.

I had dinner last night with grandpa Charlie. He’s 81 years old and remembers fondly his sweet music teacher, Miss Gallup. It was 1937. Every year Miss Gallup planned an outing at the Fairpark Music Hall in Dallas. The symphony cost 25 cents plus an extra 3 cents to ride the street car. That was a whole 28 cents! How could he ask his mother for such a dear sum of money?

I entered his story in the SCBWI Magazine Merit Award contest. It would be a great honor for grandpa Charlie ( and me), if we won. But … there are many good stories out there. I’m just happy FUN FOR KIDZ publisher Marilyn Edwards placed our story in her children’s magazine. If it won an award … wow!

Again, we wait and see. Just like everything else.

I was talking to my friend today about rejection. There’s so many degrees of rejection. Did you know there’s a board game called Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon? Another topic, another story for another day. Anyhow, so many ways to be rejected. Too many.

My friend (Hi Anja!), said that how we handle the rejection is important. And I said, “Yes. We should handle it graciously.” Or something like that. It takes awhile to get to that point. At first rejection stings. It hurts. Even the anticipation of rejection is a total downer. So today I make a pact. Every NO I get is just an opportunity. An opportunity to look another direction.

I think about what THEY say… Somewhere in a white padded room there’s a group of people who make up profound sayings, cliches, proverbs and deep thoughts that we quote all the time. THEY (those people) say that, ” When one door closes another one opens.” So that’s the way I’ll look at my rejection. Not just the ones’ from editors. All my rejections.

Because after all THEY know what they’re talking about. Whoever THEY are.

Yay!(Sorry football fans). My husband lost his voice and has a cold. Poor guy. But I cheered too. I cheered because football season is OVER! Yipee! Now I get my hubby back.

Something else good happened today. It wasn’t great, but good. Laurel Snyder wrote in an interview how she was offered her first book contract. She screamed and hollered in her car in disbelief. I’m not at that point YET. But I got a nice rejection today.

My personal handsigned rejection is from a division of Random House. Schwartz and Wade. I got a personal letter from her assistant. And that is nice. To me that’s big.

I’m looking at it now. It has the RANDOM HOUSE Children’s Books letter head imprint on the top page. It was for Barefoot on the Sidewalk. I’m sending my chapter book series out to two publishers this afternoon. The gentleman at the post office was kind enough to sprinkle imaginary pixie dust on my last outbound manuscripts. I think it may help. I really do.