I received my first rejection today.  The bummer part is that it wasn’t even a letter, just a mass printed 3 X 5 card paper clipped to my manuscript.

     Thank you for your inquiry.  We read it with interest, but the project described is not one we believe would fit into our current publishing plans.

     We cannot, therefore, encourage its submission, but we wish you the best of luck in placing it with the most appropriate publisher.

I wish it didn’t hurt to read it.  I feel sad, but not crying sad.  Bummed in a wouldn’t it have been great to have the first publisher I submitted to be the ONE?  Alas, it is not to be.  I am only left to wonder what it is to be, for life has the best poker face (and my friend Becky too – she’s good, very good). 

Now this is me envisioning myself as the man in the picture, breaking through the wall to the right publisher.  It’s bound to happen.  Oh yeah, that’s right…