Rejection

H has been actively trying to get her paintings into galleries -- and today's mail brought two rejections. Two! She felt the pain. Well, I told her the story of getting SIX in the mail on the same day in the late 60s, rejections of short stories. I'll never forget it. I went inside, threw a tantrum, sat down at my Remington manual, pounded out a belligerent "artist's statement" and sent it out the same day to one of the literary magazines that had rejected me. They published it! And here it is, from 1971, Fragments Before the Fall, published in the (then) prestigious The Literary Review. A great memory -- I love defiance being rewarded.