Like the Lottery

by Margie Senechal

Often, writers need more validation than their family can give them. As much as we love to hear this story is great or that story is the best yet from those we love, it's just not the same as getting it from an impartial jury. 

Sometimes those practically impartial people can be a new critique member you met on a board somewhere (Hi Leah!) or your blogmates (love you, Wranglers), or an agent who asks you for the next fifty pages, then the entire manuscript.

Or they can be fleeting moments that give you the will and the desire to prove an interested party right. 

I have to admit, I've been in a quasi-slump lately. 

I'm one the "lucky" ones that has remained employed through the pandemic. I honestly am thankful that I have a job that is essential. But, lately, it's been a struggle. Sometimes it feels like we're merely paddling water just hoping to stay afloat. One step forward, two steps backward.

A few weeks ago I entered a writing contest that my favorite bookclub--OnceUponABookClub--was sponsoring. I had to send a 10 page sample of my writing, so I sent the first ten pages of Suitcases and then waited. And waited. I knew they were going to announce the winners by August 20th, but that didn't stop me from checking my email compulsively for the past couple of weeks. 

I love being on submission, it's kind of like having a lottery ticket you haven't checked yet. Until you've been rejected, there's always hope. And sometimes, even in rejection, you still are offered an olive branch of hope. 

And then today, I got the email. And all those bad things that have plagued me recently didn't

seem so bad. I mean, I love talking to my customers and learning about them. I find great names for characters--Zelek, Jaerell, and some others I'm sure will come to me once I post this blog. And I love putting in a productive day and laughing with my boss. It really is a great place to work like 80 percent of the time. 

Back to my email. My writing got picked! Out of hundreds of submissions, I made it into the final 12. I will be given a gift that I am to feature in an original short story. I don't know what my gift is yet, but should find out in the next couple of weeks. 

And I'm thinking I should commit to finishing Suitcases so that when this story publishes that maybe, just  maybe, I can parlay this opportunity into something substantial. You know, like a lottery ticket. 

Have a great week, mask up, and stay well!