AT THE END OF THE DAY

It's my pleasure to post a guest blogger today. Stephen D. Rogers has published over 500 short stories and articles, his anthology Shot To Death is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the publisher, Mainly Murder Press.

I've been speaking at libraries about SHOT TO DEATH, my new collection of mystery short stories, and my writing "career" in general.

One of the most asked questions from the library audiences is how I deal with the frustrations: the slow response times, the non-responses, the acceptances that turn to rejections when a publication folds.

I'm not going to lie and say that dealing with setbacks is easy. Being at the receiving end of slings and arrows isn't exactly fun, and sometimes the irritations and disappointments slide into despair.

That's when it's most important to rediscover the spark. While everyone who sets pen to paper or finger to keyboard thinks of publication, the initial spark is the love of telling a story or crafting a sentence.

If I knew for certain that I would never publish again, would I still write? You bet. I wrote for mumble-mumble years before I was published, and I can't imagine ever wanting to stop.

At the end of the day, I'm a writer not because of the book or the six hundred other publications but because I write.

And sometimes that's enough.

Stephen D. Rogers

http://www.stephendrogers.com