Summer is the Perfect Time to WriteWritten by Nicole Criona
As of July 1st, year was half over! July 1st is Wednesday of annual calendar, it's an annual hump day (stop giggling!), and we'll be on downslide, smoothly sailing toward end of year. Summer will have just begun. The first day of summer arrives on June 21st and lasts until September 22nd.As children, summer was long, lazy, and school-less. It meant watching TV for hours, swimming, running though sprinklers, and time for exploration. Remember when you were a kid and just a walk around outside led to discovery? A hidden ant colony, a cool-shaped branch that made a great wand, a great rock that perfectly fit curvature of your body? Agriculturally, summer is time between planting and harvesting. It was a time of growth for seeds planted in spring. The agricultural cycle works like this: Spring is for planting seeds. Summer is for growth and maintenance. Autumn is harvest, time to reap rewards of what you have sown. Winter is a time of death and regeneration. Plants die and await spring again.
| | The Editor Rejected MeWritten by Raelene Hall
I’ve always felt ‘rejection’ is a cruel way to describe return of writing masterpieces. Just how awful I discovered when I looked up word in my Collins Australian ‘School’ Dictionary. Rejection (noun): From Latin reicere meaning ‘to throw back.’ Ouch! All that hard work, hours of slaving over a hot keyboard, only to have someone, supposedly a person with knowledge of what constitutes quality writing, ‘throw it back’ at me. Now how fair is that I ask? I never know in which particular format ‘throw back’ might come. It might be a nicely worded letter, oozing with sincerity and hope for future of my esteemed writing career. On other hand it could well be a standard ‘throw back’ response. You can pick these by way they cross out bits that don’t apply. ‘Thank you for your story/article/essay/poem/book/lecture. We enjoyed reading/browsing/viewing/scribbling on/ignoring it. Unfortunately it is not what we need/require/desire/give a damn about at present. I’ve often thought of complaining about this standardized form of rejection but can never decipher signature at bottom. I think it is a conspiracy to prevent me finding out who this person is that doesn’t recognise quality writing when it is stuck under his/her nose. Do these people have no idea what being a writer entails? My time is limited yet I spared a precious half hour to write piece they rejected, knowing it would suit their market. It was sprinkled with lots and lots of wonderful adjectives. There was no shortage of punctuation. The layout was a sight to behold with coloured ink and bold headlines in all important parts. It was a masterpiece, yet it was thrown back at me.
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