Rejected (01/2021)

Dear Writing Community,

I received a rejection letter yesterday and felt elated.

Dear AA,

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to read 'Keisha, Smile' for consideration in our 2020 _____ Flash Fiction Contest, judged by ______. We can send so few pieces into the next round, we do have to release work we like very much—we're sorry your entry has not advanced.

We're grateful you chose to share your writing with us, and for your support. We wish you the best of luck with your writing and hope that you will send us work again. 

Sincerely,

The Editors

I had written about a girl with an incurable disease; a work of pseudo-fiction that these editors had perhaps actually read through to the finish. It was embarrassingly honest, as is most of my writing. I had almost retracted it.

Perhaps they send this out to everyone, regardless of anything. But it reads nicely, and I felt hopeful. It came months after submitting it and I wonder if they had held onto it for consideration.

My only hope is that I am not scattered going forward.

I have a habit of switching words around in my writing. For my most recent piece I submitted to a writing contest (not "Keisha, Smile"), I noticed after I submitted it that it contained one error, and that was flipping "could not" to "not could" in a sentence. I am constantly flipping words around; perhaps I have mild dyslexia, perhaps I am anxious, perhaps I am overly zealous. My processing speed doesn't match my typing abilities.

Perhaps this reads like a journal entry.

I hope for those who want to submit to writing contests, that they are not deterred. We are all excellent at writing. I am in awe of so many of the writers on here.

I write and I write and I write and hopefully someday, I will cringe in a good way when it gets published. For being too honest, but for being open and unabashedly who I am.

A thanks and best wishes,

AA