New work up at Brilliant Flash Fiction, and other good news

The best news:

I recently signed a contract with Houghton Mifflin Hardcourt and a segment of my New York Times Magazine essay “Running Into Danger on an Alaskan Trail” will be featured in textbooks and reading materials for school-age students.

This is so exciting because when I was in school, reading was the only thing that interested me. It took me to other worlds, showed me other ways of life, opened doors to endless possibilities and dreams. It gave me something to hope for, and strive towards. Reading basically saved my life.

The idea that I could give back, that something I wrote might influence students in a similar way means more than just about anything else I’ve accomplished during my writing career. Forget money and book sales, the social media grind, the constant shuffling to maintain a presence/profile/following. Opportunities such as this are the blood and guts behind why I write.

Really good news:

–I have a new piece out in Brilliant Flash Fiction.

–I have three poems coming out in Thirteenth Nerve.

–I was chosen as a mentor for The Handy, Uncapped Pen program, where I’ll be matched with a handy capable writer to guide through six weeks of memoir and/or essay writing. This takes place in August and September, and I cannot wait to jump in and begin.

Not so good news:

I recently sent out a bunch of essays and a short story to a slew of magazines, and the rejections have been flying in.

So far I’ve been rejected by: Hawaii Pacific Review, Shenandoah, Hypertext Magazine, Cheat River Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Gravel and Itapal Magazine (ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch and ouch–wait, was that enough ouching?).

But it’s hard to worry about rejections (though of course I worry about rejections, I obsess over every single damned one) when the light has returned. We’re up to 13.5 glorious hours of daylight and gaining over four minutes a day. I can’t begin to tell you what it’s like when the light returns, how the darkness presses in during the winter, presses in until you feel suffocated and small and your brain and eyes and whole body yearn for warmth and long, sunny days. Surviving the winter up here is no small feat, so we all rejoice this time of year, we appreciate and are thankful for every sunny day. And it’s been sunny here lately, and the snow is melting fast, and we’ve been getting out for some awesome runs and dog walks, where we’ve frolicked in the snow and chased our shadows, and Seriously sniffed out a lot of stinky dead stuff and had a stinky good time. (It was 40 degrees today and I saw people out walking in short and flip-flops, no lie.)

I leave for Tucson tomorrow. When I return in late April, the snow will be gone and after a few weeks of everything being brown and dreary, the green will return and summer will be here, and every day I’ll be outside on the trails or up in the mountains or at the beach.

Sometimes I worry that my life is too small. I’m horribly introverted and spend a lot of time alone and inside my head. Other times I think: Cinthia, your life might be might be small, but it’s also very, very good.


13 thoughts on “New work up at Brilliant Flash Fiction, and other good news”

  1. Isn’t it funny that the rejections always take precedence over the successes in our minds? At least that’s how my brain works. I can get five positives of something in a row, but one negative will overshadow them all and haunt me all day.

    Congrats on all the acceptances you have had and safe travels to Arizona!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I know, Carrie! It’s so much easier to compare ourselves negatively than more positively. I read somewhere that most of us, and especially women, are afraid of our own power. I think that this is true. Anyway, can’t wait to sit in the sun in 80-degree temps, hee, hee. Cheers and have a great week (I’m halfway through The Bone Curse and saving the rest for Tucson. There’s nothing like reading outside in the sun, is there?)

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  2. kudos! I always think of this sales/marketing book I read in my 20s. For every 100 people, you may get 99 rejections and 1 YES that makes it all worth it. Some of the drivel I see in print from “scholarly” journals makes we WANT their rejections… Great work, Cinthia! -eric

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    1. Thanks, Eric. And yeah, there is a lot of drivel out there. But drivel to one person is a shining jewel to someone else, or so it seems. Or so I tell myself (console myself). Take care. Enjoy the spring down there. P.S. Do you live close to the beach?

      Liked by 1 person

      1. but for the ridge separating me from the ocean breezes and 18 – 20 miles to the beach, sure! Yet 20 -30 minutes away is not horrible. It would be an extra $450K to live (in a house) within walking distance… From my job though it’s 5 miles,,, and that’s a great lunchtime getaway…

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  3. Congrats on all the good news! And sympathies on the rejections–I know they’re always hard.

    Enjoy the sun down there, and don’t worry about living so much inside your head. I do too, and when in doubt I think of the t-shirt “I have a rich inner life.” 🙂

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  4. Yea you for staying in your happy place and for being more excited about the good in your life than the tiny rejections! Always cheering for you. Thanks for writing.

    Sent from my iPhone

    >

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  5. Good for you, Cinthia! It warms my heart to read about your acceptances AND your rejections … because your rejections prove that you are working hard and you are not giving up 🙂 Maybe because I’m also an introvert but your world doesn’t seem small to me. It’s huge with joy and that’s what truly counts!
    xoxo

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    1. Thanks so much, Marie, and big, big hugs, from one introvert to another. (Sorry it’s taken so long to reply. I’m in Tucson with no Internet and my phone is almost out of data and I thought, oh, I can live without Internet but the truth is I’m kind of going a week bit crazy, lol.) Cheers and happy weekend.

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      1. Happy weekend to you too! And I hear you about the internet. It’s one thing to do without it while knowing it’s still there for you; it’s another to do without it because it is not there for you!

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