April is National Poetry Month. I've been reading through some of my older poems again, recently. I am sometimes caught by the realization that even though I do not remember exactly what prompted the words I wrote, they still hold context and evoke familiar feelings, even decades later.
Similarly, this week I was reminded, once again, of the weakness of my memory.
A Facebook Memory popped up and prompted me to want to jot down a quick caption to share it. When I realized that had reached 1,000 words, I knew I needed to set it aside to turn into an essay. I started over and did manage an appropriate-length caption to share the memory on my page. But, when I returned to craft those 1,000 words into an essay, I decided I needed to look back into my old personal journals and photographs to make sure I was getting the details correct, as I need to do with most everything. While I was remembering the major points accurately, I was struck, once again, by just how many other details I had completely forgotten.
The essay is now 1,500 words. I believe it will be ready for me to share next week.
I did resubmit the essay I mentioned receiving a rejection for last week. It was a cold pitch to a site I have not yet worked with. It is hard to know how long to give a cold pitch before moving on but I think I'll give it another week, at least. (For those unfamiliar with the lingo, a cold pitch simply means that the site did not have out a call for submissions nor info about how to submit or apply to become a contributor, so the writer emails the editor and hopes for a response.)
I received another rejection for my children's book this week, but of a different variety. This one took the form of an email informing me that the publishing company was closing their business after 23 years. My manuscript is still outstanding with four children's book publishers. I will need to submit it to more soon, though I am toying with the idea of trying it for children's magazines, instead.
This week, I also converted a couple of old Facebook posts into an essay for InspireMore, which was published on the 27th, and I made some more Instagram images, as well.
I have at least one syndicated piece scheduled to go live in the coming days, my first for that site, so I am looking forward to that and hoping it performs well.
