The Librarian Writer

So I had a think about what I wanted for this blog. I realized that the name I chose for it is the answer. Things about writing, things about being a librarian, these are the subjects that I have something to say about. And when I think I have something worthy to share, I will. Which brings me to ... Schrodinger's Submission. I was talking to a friend about how after a long spell of not making any submissions, I was finally putting myself out there again. And as soon I hit Send, it becomes Schrodinger's Submission. Most of you are probably familiar with Schrodinger's Cat , the famous thought experiment about quantum mechanics involving a cat, a box, and potential death. The upshot of it is that the poor kitty is both alive and dead on a quantum level. But in the real world, the observer doesn't know which until she opens the box. When I send out a submission, I feel like that observer. The submission is both accepted and reject...

So I didn't win the contest with the awesome prize of a 10-page read by Regina Brooks. Does this mean I curl up with a box of Ho-Ho's and cry uncontrollably? Or trash my entire novel because the first 200 words failed to grab the judge's attention? No and no (although don't me get wrong, Ho-Ho's are awesome). I've been doing this too long to let a blog contest get me down. How long have I been doing this? Well, I won't get into actual years, but let's say it was before blog contests existed. Or blogs. Or the internets. But this current rejection made me think about my first big rejection, and that's actually a pretty good story. So I'll share. I was an English major at UCLA with vague plans of being a writer. I heard about a creative writing class taught by Irish author Brian Moore . This class was an audition class ... everyone had to submit a story and the names of those admitted to the class would be posted on a bulletin board shortly be...