WHAT DOES A HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION AND A REJECTION LETTER HAVE IN COMMON?

By Karen Cino


It’s another journey in our lives.

While sitting through my daughter’s commencement ceremony, I saw many different emotions. Some girls were crying, while others were smiling. The past four years have been a journey of learning, and paved a road for their future. The same goes for writers.

Through our journey to get published, we will have laughter, and a hell of a lot of tears. The past few rejections letters I’ve received have been filled with words of wisdom, with constructive criticism. Now I had two choices. Do I blow off the criticism or go back into my manuscript and fix it? I choose to stop my current project, print out the whole manuscript, and make the changes that were suggested by the publisher.

Since the start of my journey to get published, through my critique partner and suggestions from agents and editors, I’ve improved my pacing, and I’m slowly working through the show/tell syndrome.

The key to a journey – whether life or publication – is not to give up. Keep pushing forward and realize that life is a learning process. No matter where we are in life or in our publishing career, we will always learn something new everyday.

I look at my daughter, ready to move onto the next phase of her life. Oh yes, to be eighteen again….never. The challenges that lay ahead of her will bring her both laughter and tears, just like us writers. We will always have milestones in our lives – be it a graduation, a big birthday, a publishing contract, a job promotion –, and there will always be sadness.

My advice to my daughter and to my fellow writers is to take each day one at a time. Don’t let anything come in the way of your dreams. Our dreams are what keeps us alive and helps us along the journeys we will encounter throughout our lives.

Congratulations to my daughter Nicole and to all the other graduates of 2010. May their lives be full of love and happiness.♥




Karen Cino is President of the RWA New York City Chapter. She keeps her muse alive by walking every morning down at the South Beach Boardwalk in Staten Island. Currently, she is shopping for a home for her novel, ROSES, and is working on her next novel, MYSTICAL WONDERS.