Is it disappointment or is it a gift?

What happens when our hopes and dreams are dashed by reality? Using old clichés such as "that's life" or "that's the way the cookie crumbles" or the more recent: "don't worry, be happy" just soothes the moment. When you've written for weeks, months or even years on a project and a letter comes back just screaming to be opened announcing your manuscript has been rejected, do you crumble in defeat?

It doesn't meet our needs. We just contracted a similar story. Please consider another publisher/agent, glares back at us from the hastily typed or crookedly copied form letter. Once in a while a handwritten note might even venture onto the page, but it is still a rejection.

So now what?

Did you ever consider that rejection as a gift? It is the gift of time and opportunity. I truly believe that there is a time and a season for everything (Ecclesiastics 3:1 - 8). I used the verses in my book, Alvarado Gold, and my life. Everything happens for a reason and everything comes to fruition in its own season.

I keep a log of everything I mail out, short stories, novels, etc. I have been published about twenty times which is roughly a quarter of my overall submittals. But so many of those stories I've turned around and resubmitted to another publisher and they've been accepted and published. Over half of what I've written has won a contest or been printed in magazines, anthologies and books.

Everything happens in good time, it just may not be our time. Re-examine, re-do and re-submit. It's all about the timing. The Right Timing.