Rare Opportunities; January 9 2023

It’s kind of like last week didn’t count, right? ‘Happy New Year, we’ll start the world back up on January 9th.’ I don’t know if that’s the case for everyone – probably not – but it felt that way to me!

School’s back in session, which my kid is jazzed about. (God, I hope she keeps loving school, that would be so convenient.) Her dance classes resume today, too, and several publishers and literary agents re-opened their inboxes to queries. I’ve been busy all morning polishing up submissions and sending them off like a worried mother waving to her son as he goes to war.

That might be a touch dramatic, but hey, publishing is a battlefield. Or was that love? I’ll consult Pat Benatar.

I only motivated myself to start writing yesterday, as well. I’ve been beta reading since January 1st, but couldn’t muster the energy to put down any words of my own until I caved to inspiration and churned out a short story. Another little victory among several!

That’s right, I said several!

See, back in April of 2022, I started writing poetry. It wasn’t my first foray into poetry ever, if you count writing angsty lyrics in high school legitimate poetry, and I’ve also slipped some lyrical poetry into my books. But April was when I started really seriously trying out freeform poetry.

I had decent success with it! I wrote these poems mostly for me, but I figured, why not submit them where I think they might be a good fit? And as I mentioned in last week’s blog post, one publication liked my poem, ‘Make a List’, well enough to publish it! That was awesome!

But I also submitted to Arc Poetry magazine. Which is a big publication, if you don’t happen to know.

And I was rejected, because of course I was! I’m a newbie at this whole poetry thing!

But!

They were impressed with me enough to offer me some one-on-one consultation time with the incredible poet in-residence, Yvonne Blomer!

I’m still in shock. This is the kind of opportunity that I never expected, and it was a huge bolster to my confidence at a much-needed time.

… Oh, and I learned how to use my air fryer! That’s another nifty thing.

Yeah, the thing with Yvonne Blomer and Arc Poetry is cooler, I know.

And here’s some of our ongoing story!

Inanna lead Sage back to a seat, expression drawn into something caught between dread and sadness.

“… The sacrifice is chosen at birth, but isn’t told until it’s their time,” she explained softly, grimly. Sage sank back into the chair and watched Inanna, stomach sinking.

“He comes down from the clouds on a bolt of lightning. Calamity, we call him. He could destroy the entire world if he so desired, and… sometimes, he wants exactly that. In order to appease him, we give him one of our own, once every twenty-five years. And this time, it was you.”