Not an easy road...

Several months ago, I wrote "the end" as the two last words of my novel.

Since then I have collecting rejection letters from literary agents. Is that frustrating? Of course. Do I often feel discouraged? You bet !

So why do I carry on inflicting this to myself? Because there is no other way.

What really comforts me is that I am in very good company on this road. Here are some examples to give you the strength to carry on.

One of the most famous is Carrie by the very talented, very famous Stephen King himself. He was so sick and tired of the 30 rejections from publishers, he threw the manuscript away. His wife fished it out of the trash bin and encouraged the author to take some more steps. The rest is history.

One of my favorite books ever, Dune by Frank Herbert was rejected by 23 publisher before a small Philadelphia publisher finally accepted it. 5 books later, inspiring films and series, this is now part of our imaginary landscape.

So I proudly count my rejections, as scars from the battlefield. 8 so far, plus 5 that did not even bothered to answer. No one told me to give up the fight, that I should stick to gardening or knitting or whatever my hobbies are.

One proofreader barred almost one word out of two and entire paragraphs from the first draft. That was rough I must confess. Others liked the book and helped me make it better, or so I hope.

I still love this book, am still so found of my characters. This could be a much better book, certainly. Does it deserve to be published? I still don't know but I don't give up hope while writing the next one.

As long as I keep on riding this strange road, I feel alive. This tells me I am after all a writer.