Rejection

September 6, 2018September 6, 2018 / legreene515 / 3 Comments

I received my rejection from the Master’s Review yesterday. SIGH.

Curses, rejected again!

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Here it is in all its glory:

Dear Lauren,

Thank you for sending us “I Held Your Heart Once” for consideration in our Flash Fiction Contest. We really enjoyed reading your writing, and are flattered you chose to submit to us. This is one of our most popular contests, and we thank you for your patience while we read through all of the submissions.

I am sorry to say that your submission was not selected for publication. It is clear that you are a very talented writer, and your piece stood out from the pack. Unfortunately, we had to decline some excellent stories, but we are grateful for the chance to read such high quality work.

We wish you the best of luck with your writing and look forward to bringing you more wonderful stories. Part of our aim is to support great work from new writers and we consider every story we read an effort toward that goal. We couldn’t do this without you. We hope to read more of your fiction in the future.

Thank you again,
The Masters Review Team

In case you’re interested in reading my rejected piece, I’ve republished to this blog: https://laurengreenewrites.com/2018/09/06/i-held-your-heart-once/

What a nice rejection. I mean, honestly. I’m a very talented writer. I know this. I just can’t seem to get actually published. The thing about writing is that there’s constant rejection. A rejection letter can send you for a loop. I knew that story was good. It just wasn’t what the Master’s Review was looking for. That’s their loss.

So how do you deal with the rejection of not getting published? Maybe you take a drink. Or go for a run. Then you start writing again. Or you send out that piece that maybe didn’t work for the Master’s Review to someone else and wait for the next rejection letter to roll in…or if you’re really lucky, an acceptance.

I like to think about how J.K. Rowling was rejected a billion times before she became a published writer. I also like to think about how much I enjoy writing and sharing it with others. And about how sometimes my writing is just for me. That I need to write to be fulfilled, and if I’m never officially published then I’m never officially published.

Roll with it, baby.

Follow Lauren Greene:

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Where Have I Been?

July 8, 2015 / legreene515 / Leave a comment

Excuse the cellphone quality photo. I haven’t quite downloaded the camera photos yet. When you come back from Paradise, where you lived for six days without children, it’s hard to get back into the swing of things. We stayed at Paradisus Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic and my hubby and I had some much needed alone time. Rekindling, if you will? We also met some great people who seemed more like characters in a book, but as we all know “Characters are only works of fiction, any resemblance to someone in real life is purely coincidental.”

Originally, when we planned this trip I thought The Devil Within would already be out. I anticipated having it published in April or May, but we all know how seldom things go as planned. That’s the fun of life. I was pleasantly surprised to know the paperback came out the day before we left, and guess what? Now the kindle edition is out. For some reason they’re two different links and the Kindle link is hard to find. I’m hoping Amazon gets that sorted out. I’m sure they will.

Click the book below for the link to the Kindle edition:

So let me tell you, the absolute best way to make a book a raging success is to fly to the Dominican Republic for a week the day it comes out. No, I’m kidding. I really wanted to bomb the market with this book. I wanted it to have a fantastic first day out, because I feel like this book is special. And I don’t know if thousands of authors say that. Oh, look at me, I wrote a book. But I didn’t think I would ever publish this book. I wrote it more for myself, the inspiration plucked from the sky somewhere. Writing it took me on an emotional journey through the doorways of youth, religion, hate and love. In this book, William experiences suffering that no small child should feel, but the truth is every day in the “real world” children are coping with the harsh realities of what William’s fictional life: being hurt by the person who is supposed to care for them the most.

When you are young, the world seems so big. Sometimes it seems magical. And other times it’s terrifying. As I wrote The Devil Within I felt horrified for William. My heart tugged for him, and I longed to help him escape. I longed to give him a chance. And so, this book is personal to me because it tells a tale of survival and that’s what we’re all trying to do in this amazing unrelenting world of ours.

Follow Me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenegreene

And On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laurengreenewrites

The Devil Within is Available in Paperback!

June 30, 2015June 30, 2015 / legreene515 / Leave a comment

Short and sweet and to the point! The Devil Within is now available on Amazon in paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Devil-Within-Lauren-Greene/dp/1513700200/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435691170&sr=8-1&keywords=the+devil+within+by+lauren+greene.

Hopefully the ebook will be up soon! Grab it to read over July 4th! If you have PRIME, you can have it by the 2nd. Enjoy, and I’ll see you all after my vacation.

Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter: http://eepurl.com/bo4ILP

–Lauren

Release Day for Upon A Time by February Grace!

March 3, 2015 / legreene515 / Leave a comment

About the Book

Title: Upon A. Time

Author: February Grace

Genre: Fantasy / Fairytale / Romance

A blacksmith’s apprentice who would be a knight. The heir to the throne, at death’s door. One woman who would save them both, if she could… Charlotte was number sixty-four in the second group of young, hopeful maidens intended to meet the Prince at a grand ball in his honor. That introduction was not to be. She returned home to her tiny village—and her visions of a future limited by it—without any warning of the drastic turn her life was about to take. Soon she would be fighting against the odds to help keep a gravely wounded stranger alive; and waging war with her own heart, as he stirred feelings in her she’d never known. When the stranger’s royal identity is revealed, Charlotte is faced with an entirely different battle: one to keep her family, village, and the injured Prince in her care all safe from a madman set on taking the throne by any means necessary.

Author Bio

February Grace is a writer, poet, and artist from Southeastern Michigan. She has created characters with clockwork hearts, told the romantic tale of modern fairy godparents, and has now put her own spin on a classic tale in UPON A TIME, her fourth novel published by Booktrope. She sings on key, plays by ear, and is more than mildly obsessed with colors, music, and meteor showers.

Links

Website: http://februarywriter.blogspot.com

No Turning Back

February 16, 2015February 16, 2015 / legreene515 / 4 Comments

No Turning Back

After years of talking about being a writer, I finally decided to do something about it.

In January, I self-published “No Turning Back” on Amazon. I had worked on it for several years: pulled it out, put it up, pulled it out again. Finally, I had a few people beta read, and they gave me great feedback. They also made me believe the story was worth telling. Then I decided if I was going to go for it then I just had to do it.

I set myself a deadline, and I worked towards making sure I had everything ready for that deadline. I wish, now looking back, that I had been a little more flexible with my deadline. I should have probably talked the book up a little bit more than I did, promoted it, marketed it. But overall, I think the release went well. And what was better was that people talked to me about it: what they liked in the book, what they didn’t, how Kaia’s character frustrated them but seemed so real.

I had several authors from various writer’s groups I’m involved in spread the word. Being a writer means being part of a big community, and writers are great at helping out their own fledglings. Something I’ve learned recently and really love. It’s great to know there are so many people in the same journey as I am.

So now Kaia is out in the real world, and people react to her in different ways, some predictable and some not.

From I hate her to What a strong woman–there is conversation about the characters that lived in my mind and were put down on paper. And I think that’s pretty effing cool! I’m figuring out how to juggle promotion, writing, editing, and publishing my second book (not to mention family, day job, and exercise). Writing is time consuming, and it’s not nearly all writing. In fact, about 50% of it is other stuff. At first, I hated the other stuff, but now I’m finding ways to like it.

I’m realizing if I want to tell my stories, and have people react the same way they did to Kaia, Patrick and Asher in “No Turning Back,” that I have to put in the work. A lot of hard work, even when I don’t want to. It will be worth it in the long run.

♥♥♥