Time for Next Steps

Whatever those next steps may be.

My "Goodbye" advice to all of us is to Keep Writing.

Who knows? Some day, any of us may receive a rejection letter like this one:

Dear Bob Boulton:

Bob: Thank you for submitting your story to our little magazine. 

We regret, and we are all, all of us, in agreement on this, we regret we are not in a position to publish it. My goodness we can barely sleep at night at the thoughts of this decision.

We want to assure you that your story received due, even excessive, consideration just to make sure we haven't been acting hastily Nine months for a response time is a new record for us. Our editors, as we make very clear in our Submission Guidelines, are all unpaid volunteers who work day and night in the service of the Arts. Every last one of them read your submission and were, each f them, struck speechless. Not only do we ask your forgiveness for not publishing your story, we also ask that you never submit anything to us again. Your skill as a writer and your insights into Hunan Nature are simply so magnificent in comparison with the others who submit to us that for them to read what you have written would we think be unduly discouraging for them. Perhaps the Paris Review might want to look at your work.

But not us. 

Sincerely yours.

So, I will say goodbye to Bob's Write from the Start now with my final two words: Keep Writing.