Having read Woman’s Weekly since I was about five, I’ve dreamt of being published in this magazine. In the desert, it’s a slice of Britannia which I often have with a mug of tea(Yorkshire,builder’s).
Having had a letter and a photo published, my holy grail is a short story. Some sources recommend breaking into Buckingham Palace as an alternative. A writing magazine columnist, who makes a significant portion of her income from selling her short stories worldwide, has had limited success in over a decade. She has neither confirmed nor denied meeting the Queen.
Having perused the submission guidelines, I decided to do one of their writing courses. This plan was scuppered by the Great British Passport Fiasco of 2014.
Deleting this from my Ultimate Wish List has been considered and dismissed, often.
Having read, studied, dissected, analysed, critiqued, examined scores of others’ stories; I have drafted, edited, rewritten and proofed several of mine. Out of many, one was chosen to be redrafted, critiqued and rewritten several times before being polished. Same was done with the covering letter. With a hope and a prayer, both were posted.
Eight weeks later, I received a rejection letter. Gutting but expected – part of the writing life. Two lines stung like the welts of a guava whip: the suggestion that I should read the magazine as the story did not reflect the audience and I should consider their fiction course.
As they say in the desert…What to do yani?
For what it’s worth, your recounting of that experience alone is worthy of being published in said magazine. Take solace from the fact you conveyed your hope, excitement, anxiety and eventually, pain, fantastically.. and it is their loss that they have not published you… yet. 🙂
Never give up. Keep going. Love you always. A..
Great to have siblings – by blood or in law..Thanks for the support and your eloquent as usual words – you should have your own blog
Rejection is not easy but sometimes I wonder if they really have an agenda. I went in your place to the short story writing course and I was very disappointed in some respects. I listened to the fiction editor talk about what they /she looked for to publish and every thing she dissed was exactly what was in the magazine over the next three weeks. Also as a teacher of English with a special interest in writing it seemed that all the things I had been telling children as ways to improve their writing were wrong. But we love to write and maybe one day we’ll be able to self publish.
Totally agreed. As my friend http://mohadoha.com/ has experienced and now exclusively electronically and self publishes.
This made me grin and feel the pain in equal measure.
Thanks for the support Arti as a fellow writer!