New 'Immortal' @ Metazen / Overcoming Discouragement

I have a new story called "Intventing the Victim" up at Metazen today (Thanks again, Frank...). It's a chapter from one of my unpublished novels, a novel of stories called The Immortals Act Their Age.

You can read other stories/chapters from The Immortals, along with stories and excerpts from other novels here. You can also read some of my poetry, essays, and reviews.

My other novels are Lepers and Mannequins, Mermaid Sackrace, and The Quarantine Ceremony. None of these are published yet either, though I've received some great feedback from the editors of presses I've sent them to.

It's been very hard and discouraging sometimes, getting my hopes up when a queried editor is interested and says, "I like this, please send the whole manuscript," but they ultimately reject it. Or when I'm solicited to send a manuscript along, but the soliciting editor ultimately rejects it.

So, what to do when all your novels are being rejected? Start writing a new novel. There's no better feeling than working on a new novel no one will ever publish. There's a freedom in that: No one will publish it so, like the others, I can do whatever I want in it.

I've tried to make all my novels different, so this new one will be different from those as well. I know different doesn't mean good, nor does freedom imply the absence of anxiety or that seeking publication will never occur to me. They key is to enjoy what you're writing. And I've done that. I'm doing that now...