Lisa is a great writer. I’ve mentioned this fact both to her and other people recently, but when I finally get the chance to read her new work (once I finally remember that there’s stuff for me to read, which takes a while), I get to think about it all over again.
Why is it literary journals make you jump through hoops, make you keep submitting work even though they probably don’t even read it if they don’t recognize your name? Why is it that for the first who knows how many submissions they just “reject” you? Lisa doesn’t complain about this stuff much, but I know it’s awful. So much of what you see published in these journals falls under the heading of TTBP: overly obscure “literature” that only other writers even bother to look at, let alone care enough to read and think about. There are certainly a lot of good writers out there too, but there’s too many of the other kind getting published while the good ones are trying to get in.
Is there any place for a good story anymore? I believe there is. I believe that even these journals that publish some crap will accept unpretentious, well-crafted stories like the ones Lisa writes, maybe even in spite of themselves. It will be good for them. Unfortunately, it’s going to take a little while for them to realize that she is “serious”, for them to recognize her name as someone who has submitted to them many times and yes, wants her work to appear there.
Just the same, it isn’t easy to send a piece of your heart and soul out into the cold, cruel world and have no affirmation from anyone but your beloved friends and family that you’re doing the right thing. Not that we aren’t worth a lot, far from it, but it’s hard to make a living on the kindness of your loved ones. Try as we might.
Moral of the story: writing is hard, and I have loads of respect for Lisa for sticking with it. Yeah, she loves to do it and she’s really good at it, but it’s still harder than most of the things I do all day.
Now it’s time for me to wait for her to see this and tell me how funny my writing is when it’s late at night. “Trav-elling! Ha ha ha!” As they say, “It’s a good thing you’re cute…”