Fifteen years ago today, I wrote this. It was my first ever blog entry.

Anytime I've had a major setback in my life, I've been told to think of it as the first day of the rest of my life. Barf. Why can't I just mope and then be done with it? Why do I have to be cheery and happy, keep a brave face on and pretend that nothing has happened?

I received word of my first major rejection on The Spirits Within* yesterday. There have been others, and there will be more, but this was a major publisher. And they really liked the book. Loved the characters, thought they were finely drawn. Liked the plot. Liked the voice. Thought the writing was solid. And yet it was missing that certain je ne sais quoi that the NY publishers want to make them a million bucks.

So how do you rewrite a novel that one of the best editors in New York really liked?

*It took another two years to get a deal, and it was for another book. The Spirits Within was eventually published, in 2016, under the name FIELD OF GRAVES.

Never give up, friends. Never give up.