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Bud Grossmann’s
Words of the Week
for the Week of
July 9, 2006
Previously unpublished Fiction
© 2006 by Bud Grossmann.
All Rights Reserved.
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Untitled, 1969
© 1969 by Bud Grossmann
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DOES NOT MEET OUR PRESENT NEEDS
From: Harrison Harmeyer
To: <—>
Date: Fri, 7 Jul 2006 21:55:26 -1000
Subject: Hmmm.
Okay, fragile author, your piece got rejected by one editor, one publisher, but does that validate your adjectives of self-flagellation? I think not.
If the submission had been accepted, would you declare it "good" and "mature" and "insightful" and "charmingly casual" and "frankly personal" and "carefully polished with the help of an accomplished writer friend"?
A rejection, even if accompanied by the rejector's reasons, doesn't necessarily mean much at all.
Go ahead and learn from the experience. In this case, you at least learned you were somewhat "attached" to the idea of having your piece published, put out before a wider audience. Or, anyway, that is what this one reader thinks you said you learned. And if that's not what you meant to tell me that you learned, then does that mean you don't write clearly, or perhaps that I don't hear clearly?
Go back to the story and change the Fourth of July to Labor Day and substitute something for the Independence theme and send it out again. Or stick a fresh page of paper in your typewriter and put some words on it on any other topic in the world. Love-and-— sells, I have heard; maybe you can find an audience for that.
Sorry, Ms. Peabody Award Winning Laurel Rester, I got so excited by your self-flagellation, that I took a few licks at you myself. If you tell me they felt good, I will stop.
Love, Harry
P.S. A recent issue of Honolulu Weekly included a letter to the editor in which some brave soul repeatedly called Ehren Watada a coward. I was fascinated by it. Would love to speak to the author of that letter and try to find out what makes him so damn courageous that he can speak in judgment of Lt. Watada. But one thing I noticed. The writer was brave enough to write out his opinion and put it in print for all of Honolulu to read. That in itself made me smile.
HH
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