Positivity - does it work?

Tea and cake solves everything!

Strangely, since self-publishing my first book in November last year, I have felt more confident. Although very nervous about the response I would get, reviews etc., it has all been positive. Friends have loved the stories and recommended my book to friends of theirs. I know these are friends of mine, but I've never pushed them to tell me what they think, (but they have!) and I only asked couple of trusted friends to write honest reviews, because most people hate writing them and I knew most wouldn't. The best bit I am now selling to people I don't know personally!

Selling direct has been the easiest way to get my book out there, and I've bought a second batch of author copies as I am now getting requests! I wonder whether any of this is down to my new strategery on positivity. I have decided to ignore rejections. Well, not ignore as such, more deal with it and move on.

And I have more good news to impart. My short story Tools of the Trade has just been published online at Aayo Magazine. I was thrilled to get the email and for such a fast response. I only submitted last month. The story was originally shortlisted for a competition back in 2017, I think, but never published. I tweaked the ending and submitted it. I've always liked this story.

I did my first month review using my new Legend Planner, and I beat my goal for submissions last month. I set the goal for five submissions and I submitted seven times. Finding home for work can be tricky and, although magazines advertise in writing magazines as being open, I often find when looking at their websites their submission windows are closed, some for the foreseeable future. Even when submissions windows are open there is the job of searching for the right poem or story for them, something I feel will fit what they publish. I'd forgotten how long it took! I even submitted some poems by snail mail yesterday, which is rare thing these days.It took even longer as I had to print and find suitable envelopes.

Finally, I have a couple of poems in The Peoples Friend Fireside Book 2022. Because it takes so long to get a response and then publication, I tend to forget about these.

So, has my positivity worked? Maybe its coincidence, but I feel good right now about my writing. I have always been honest about my journey to be published. It's been all consuming, downright heartbreaking for a couple of years, but at the moment everything is upbeat. I hang on to these times because they are my insurance for the darker days. Writing is like a rollercoaster and you never know when the next turn comes, how far you will fly, how far you fall. But writing is in my blood. I need to start believing what people tell me about my writing and get on with it.