Tag: Kenai

Racking up More than Just Rejections

JaclynLeave a comment

Inspired by a list of 100 Best Ways to Becoming a Better Writer on thecopybot.com, I decided in July that I was going to follow Number 66: Rack up Rejections.  I set off on a crazy adventure in which I submitted work to 30 literary magazines in 30 days.  At the time, I was really just expecting to get some practice in the litmag scene and also start steeling myself to the idea that if I wanted to write, I’d have to come to terms with being rejected.

It turns out, I learned more than I could have ever expected.  It was such a powerful learning experience that I am doing it again this month.

I have been racking up the rejections.  They are trickling in slowly due to slow response times.  This is kind of nice so that I don’t have to hear 30 No!s all at one time.  But I haven’t been getting only negative responses, either.

Flash Frontier, a purveyor of fine flash fiction, accepted a piece I wrote long ago about Alaska for their August 2013 Issue: Snow.

And that’s not the only positive response I’ve gotten.  More news on that front as the publications come out!

My First Alaska (Summer 2005)*

JaclynLeave a comment

It started with the lake

and the spruce trees leaned

in for a better look.

My toes wandered

into the water,

which threw out

glacial-silt blue

and reflected a grey sky.

Toes exploring further,

ahead of myself so that

the snow-born water crept

up my legs and I was soon

on my back.

Mushrooms popped tops

of heads up through

moist dirt to peep.

My toes led the way,

becoming glacial themselves

as the Alaskan current

carried me out of the lake and to

the river.

I flowed.

Mist began to fall

and I became

a blue totem:

beaver knees,

eagle mound,

moose-antler breasts,

grizzly-bear hair.

My skin crystallized,

forming snowflake stars

over my fingers,

shins,

then finally

my middle.

Cracked.

As a close summer sun

came out

my blue star

skin melted

and I became the Kenai.

*As I was packing and preparing for my move, I found this little number that I had written my first time in Alaska.  Revisiting it after 8 years, I can see quite a few revisions I would want to make, but I wanted to post it in its original.   I’m wondering how my impressions and experience of Alaska this time around will compare with my memories.