About a month ago, I read a tweet so quickly I didn’t even take the time to retweet it or “like” it; however, the words inherent in that powerful tweet are now a part of my writer’s heart:
Your yes has to be stronger than all those no’s.
I’ve been echoing that yes since I was 7 years old when I knew after winning a writing contest that I wanted to be a published author. I started writing VICTORY STUMBLES in 2004, but one divorce, one Ph.D. and tenure, one more marriage and three kids, and one academic book later, I said YES again to my children’s literature writing.
Every time I think I am going to turn away from children’s lit. an opportunity crosses my path that keeps me on this journey. For example, I was ready to quit in 2018 after an agent’s no crushed my heart, but a student of mine, Robin Wilson (now a teacher, author, and motivational speaker), encouraged me to submit my manuscript to the 2019 SCBWI-Michigan Chapter Mentorship with YA novelist Kelly Barson. Winning that mentorship and revising VICTORY STUMBLES twice across that year helped me grow immensely as a writer and to understand why the insightful agent had to say no after reading the full request.
Recently, my friend Kat Higgs-Coulthard, author of Hanging with My Peeps and Junkyard Dogs (March 2023, Peachtree Publishing Company) encouraged me to submit my manuscript to the October 2022 Pacific Coast Children’s Writers Novel and Retreat Whole Novel Critique. Literary Agent Suzie Townsend, Vice President of New Leaf Literary and Media, selected VICTORY STUMBLES as one of two full manuscripts she reviewed. Her feedback and the two 45-minute sessions we spent together via Zoom allowed VICTORY STUMBLES to evolve into a book that I cannot wait to publish. I hoped she’d represent me, but the violence in that draft forced her to say no. I took her no as feedback which helped me see violence was not needed in Sarah’s story, and now the new version of VICTORY STUMBLES continues the journey, violent-free. The manuscript is so much stronger, and I am so thankful for Suzie’s feedback, even her no.
I fully understand that the road to publishing is riddled with no’s.
I fully understand it will take one yes from my future agent agreeing to represent me and/or my future editor agreeing to publish my book. At that point, there will be multiple yes’s, but only one yes truly matters right now.
My YES.
Without my choice to continue to say yes no matter how many no’s are in my future, Sarah’s story will never be shared. I will say yes always, no matter the number of no’s that cross my path. I’ll learn from each no, continue to make VICTORY STUMBLES stronger per each reader’s insight, and continue to write ANGERED HEART and SCRAPS and YOU NEVER KNOW THE LAST TIME while I wait for an agent’s yes and/or an editor’s yes for VICTORY STUMBLES.
Someday, soon I hope, I will be a published author of my first of many children’s literature books.
I can’t wait to prove to my seven-year-old self that her dream mattered, echoed across the years, and succeeded. Her yes is my writer’s heartbeat.