Putting Myself Out There

Yesterday I got a dash of courage, after a great pep-talk from my writing mentor, and called the editor for one of our state's larger newspapers.

The first phone call resulted in it being a bad time. I offered to call back later.

Later rolls around and I call again. The editor's receptionist informs me that he is in a meeting but she will give him my name and number. I couldn't help but notice that she didn't say that he would call me back...

Feeling down and defeated before even being rejected, I was happily stunned when my phone rang and I recognized the area code as being him. Unlike a previous editor I have spoken to, he was very friendly and laid-back. He didn't shoot me down, and most importantly, he didn't say, "no." He also didn't say,

"We can't afford to hire anyone else on at the moment."
-or-
"We only let our on staff writers do op/ed pieces."
-or-
"Two calls in one day? Stop stalking me, lady."

He even asked me to send him some stuff via email... which felt like a big positive. I am going to patiently wait until Monday to contact him if he hasn't gotten back to me in that time. I'm sure he has more important things to do than worry about me, so I will have to be a small thorn in his side until he agrees to publish me.

Throwing myself, and my work and ideas, out there for someone to see and possibly reject is extremely hard. My writing mentor, that I mentioned above, has already given me "it's only one man's opinion if he isn't into it..." talk. He also gave me wise words of a seasoned writer,

"A willing editor is half the battle won!"

I hesistated to post about this because I really do not want to have to come back later and post if nothing comes of it. Swallowing my pride is tough. I am being brave in hopes that my struggle to make my dream come true will encourage others to do the same. Doing nothing will always result in nothing. Christians would call that reaping what you sow.