Denied!

A few weeks ago, I submitted a chapter proposal for an upcoming Science Fiction book. Today, I received a very nicely worded email informing me that my proposal wasn't right for the book.

Putting work out there and having it critiqued, and possibly rejected, is one of the few hazards of my profession. Even the best scholars typically receive several rejections a year. As a relatively new scholar, I'm always told the same thing: "don't take the rejections personally." I have a difficult time with that, I'm afraid. There's that part of me that always asks, "Why wasn't my work good enough?" Silly, I know, but that's my initial reaction. So, I spent the better part of today bummed that my proposal didn't make the cut. I'll give myself the rest of tonight to feel disappointed and then it's time to suck it up and move on. As I've been asked to participate on a panel at the upcoming national convention, some form of the essay will likely see the light of day (we're still waiting on acceptances for national convention panels). If the panel doesn't make the cut, I'll sit down and decide how much time and energy I want to put into submitting the essay to a journal.