If anyone's interested in the story behind the story with my novel Water Steps, please check out my contribution to CLN's Bookscope  The Literary Ripple Effect. If you don't know CLN, feel free to browse their site and check it out. I highly recommend the organization and applaud all they do to celebrate and honor children's literature.

A friend of mine, Veda Boyd Jones, asked me for advice on how to bounce back from rejection. She's writing an article on the subject.  I'll share what I sent to her, but I'd love to hear what other folks have to share about their own approach to dealing with rejection.

Whether it’s being picked last for the team or being told your plot is too confusing to follow, rejection is always an arrow to the heart.  And with such injuries, you can respond by donning armor and attitude.  First, feel free to say, ouch!  Who wouldn’t with a proverbial arrow sticking out of your chest?  Once you’ve acknowledged the sting, arm yourself with the fact that any rejection is part opinion, part market analysis, and part literary response.  It’s your job to figure out how much of each is at the base of it.  If the comments reflect a reader based response like, “I’m not that fond of …,” then you can surmise that that portion of the rejection is personal.  Some editors aren’t fond of certain genres or even certain things. I had an editor reject a book of mine because one of the characters was elderly and she wasn’t that fond of old people!  If the editor talks about having a tough time selling marketing on the idea or calls it a “quiet” book or mentions its  lack of broad appeal, then you know the issue is marketing.  On the other hand, if the editor critiques the craft – the development of the characters, the plot, etc, then you know the issue was the level of development.  It also helps to get a variety of opinions—do you see a pattern in the types of responses editors are giving you?  Then follow the pattern where it leads you. 

 In response, find an editor who loves what you’re writing based on other books s/he has worked on; seek a publisher who markets the type of book you’re writing (different publishers have different target audiences); and/or hone the craft of your manuscript.    

Above all, remember that what you are is a writer, it’s a part of you—what you write is a product and when an editor critiques your work—it’s not you that’s being critiqued, it’s just one thing you’ve written and that story may or may not merge into something new over its lifetime. You certainly have plenty more to say in the many stories you’ll write over your lifetime, so don’t take it personally—publishing is part of the profession of being an author, writing is our passion.  Focus on the passion and leave the book selling to the professionals.

Well, we can all tell that A. LaFaye is not with it.  She can't keep up with slang-- she's still hung up on the impressive fact that "twit" has meant the same thing for nearly 900 years. That a lot to say for any word.  I mean look at "weird" and how many times it's changed its meaning-- well, actually we changed it-- us talking and writing folks. Well, most people blame Shakespeare, but I'm not one for bandwagons, so I'll just blame Fancis Bacon. Seriously, though, I'm sorry I haven't been blogging on my blog, but I've never been one for that either.  I won't offer any empty promises of intending to write more often--afterall, I can't even remember my New Year's resolution at this point, so how can I, in good conscience, say I'll remember my blog site password and actually post regularly to this thing. Let's just say my words aren't the only thing to wander like my thoughts, the point of this blog, or my mind.  So, I'm off to wander about .  Hopefully, I 'llwander back soon.  I hope you're well and reading and/or writing facscinating things.  Do tell me aobut them. 

Priming the Primed Mind

Have you ever heard a talk on being a "real" writer that left you with the feeling, "Well, that's not me. That's not how I write"? If so, then "The Primed Mind" may be just the book for you. It takes a subconscious approach to the art of writing by recognizing that all of the material we put on the page is drawn from our minds. In that case, it makes a lot of sense to train the mind to be more creative, productive, and knowledgeable about craft. Written in a conversational tone by a published novelist, "The Primed Mind" takes a craft approach to writing fiction that looks at the process of cultivating a writer's mind, learning the elements of fiction, critiquing, revising, and living the life of an author.

Back when Walt Whitman and Mark Twain published their seminal works, publishing in the US was done by subscription. Authors had to sell their books to individual subscribers before a publisher would print the book. With the current economy, we're almost to that stage again with independent publishers like Holy Cow Press (www.holycowpress.org) who published Natalie Goldberg's first collection of poetry. Unfortunately they

a) turned down Writing Down the Bones because they weren't sure if there was enough of a market for the book

b) have been forced, by the current economy, to halt their purchases of new titles.

This has caught me in a bind with my book "The Primed Mind." They're open to publishing the book if I subsidize the publication, but I can't afford it, so I'm going back to the subscription days and asking folks who are interest in purchasing the book to help me raise the funds to subsidize it's publication. Once the goal is met, the book would come out in about a year.

And who am I, you may be asking. Well, for starters, I'm a novelist. My first novel, The Year of the Sawdust Man, was favorably compared to To Kill A Mockingbird. I was stunned awed and grateful. I've published nine novels since then, in including the Scott O'Dell Award winning novel Worth. I'm also a visiting assistant professor in the low residency MFA programs at Hamline and Hollins Universities. For more information on me and my work, please visit my website at www.alafaye.com.

Testimonials for "The Primed Mind"
"Thank you for letting me read the chapter from what I hope will be a book. Our students could use this instruction. You write so fluently, your approach to the reader is so conversational, and your expression is so pleasant that I hardly notice as I read that my instruction is the object. I never heard the term "forms analysis" until you used it, so I'm glad to see here what you mean. Would you consider offering the unpublished book for sale to students?" --Jane Resh Thomas, author and writing coach. www.janereshthomas.com

To help with this project, visit:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1257577731/priming-the-primed-mind-0