My daughter is a senior in college majoring in journalism at a big University.  She is always telling me how she hates to write because she doesn't like the negative feedback she gets on her papers from certain professors.  They are the ones that don't bother to point out the good things about her writing but go out of their way to be negative and tell her everything she did wrong. I understand that their job is to teach but often their comments are just their opinion and their approach often feels like a kick in the belly.  They get an "F" in the "build me up" department. I try to support my daughter when she calls me in tears feeling like a failure.  I give her the "it's just one persons opinion" speech.  Over the years, I've given it many times.  She has grown up showing horses and knows how it feels to be judged, so she is not thin skinned.  You can preform a perfect pattern but if the judge likes paint horses better than appaloosas and you're on the appy, you probably won't win that class.

Writing, if grammatically done correct, is just a matter of personal opinion.  True some writers have the ability to paint a more colorful picture and spice things up more than others, but that doesn't mean they are better writers.  We all like different flavors, some like it hot and some do not and that's what makes us unique recipes. 

Where I'm going with this is that I made one of those "kicked in the stomach" calls to my daughter today.  I received a rejection letter for a short manuscript that I submitted two months ago.  I have written articles over the years and submitted them to various publications.  I have published several and been well paid for those pieces and I have gotten the dreaded "We're sorry but this doesn't meet our editorial needs at this time."  I can handle those kind of rejection letters.  They don't say I'm a lousy writer or my story looks like it was written by a first grader, it just says that they don't satisfy that publishers appetite at that time.  But this one was different.  I believe that the editor thought they were being helpful, but I didn't submit my manuscript asking for a grade or review.

I'm a self published author of a very personal book that I recently wrote called "A Sacred Place, Memoirs of a Female Hunter" .  I didn't even try to submit this book to a publishing company,  I just published with a print-on-demand company so I didn't have to deal with someone else telling me how to make it a better story.  This book is my story not theirs.  It's a true story and I tried to paint a descriptive picture to allow the reader to walk along beside me on my very personal journey and feel what I felt.  The rejection letter I just received was for one of those personal stories.  The letter started out by thanking me for submitting.  The editor went on to say they found it a "pretty good read".  Well there was the first little kick.  Then they went on to say that they had received stronger better stories.  Well that's OK, I can handle that. It's their choice to pick what they like.  Then they ended with the "General Critique" (unsolicited of course).  What is this, high school English class? I thought as I read the next sentence.  "It stays a bit too much on the surface"...what ever that means, I thought. Another jab to the midsection.  And now that I'm already in pain here it comes...wait for it..."you need to write from the heart."  Wow the final kick in the gut to make me feel like I'm a loser and total failure.  Wait a minute, this is my story, my emotions and my loss, how does this editor know how I felt and that I didn't write from my heart?

So I made the call to my college journalist daughter who gave  me some very sound advice... "It's just their opinion Mom," she said.  "That's why I don't like writing."  She reminded me that I need to practice what I am always preaching to her.  But it still kind of stings.  But I guess I need to pick myself up and shake it off.  I think I'll go bake some chocolate chip cookies.  I like that flavor.

Until Later,
Sherrie Gant
A Sacred Place, Memoirs of a Female Hunter
www.sherriegant.com

I am a self published author.  In the publishing world the general public has been led to believe that self published author's work isn't any good or they would not have chosen the "vanity publishing" route.  However many self published authors are proving that rumor false by becoming Best Selling authors, and they did it without the help of big publishing companies.  I am one of 700,000 self published authors, true some will be poor writers but the odds are we aren't all bad.  Just because we chose to self publish doesn't mean we tried traditional methods and failed.  For me, I chose it because I'm a control freak and wanted things to be done my way.  I will admit that I have struggled when it comes to marketing.  Writing is my cup a tea, it's just talking with  my hands, and I'm quite good at that.  But marketing on the other hand is a whole new beverage for me.  One that has a bitter taste.  So I'm always on the lookout for a new flavor; guidance.  My friend, who is an award winning, recently NYT Best Selling author I might add (not self published), sent me an email about a guy that has been very successful at self publishing.   He too is a NYT Best Selling author as well as an Amazon Kindle Best Selling Author.

From that e-mail I purchased a book called, How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months, written by John Locke. In his book John shares his marketing plan on how he used social media to become a best selling author.  He was however first a self made millionaire in the insurance business.  And now a successful author.  I'm just a housewife and a mom.  I don't care about becoming a best selling author but I spent 6 years writing, and a lifetime creating, the stories that I've published in my book and I'd like to share them with more than a dozen of my closest relatives.  OK, I'm exaggerating but not much.  With the invention of e-readers, you can purchase books cheap.  In this case, for the low price of $2.99, that's less then a fancy cup of coffee.  For that price you can afford to spit out the bad ones and go to Starbucks.  With all that aside, I had a point to make.  It's the real reason I'm blogging today. 

In John Locke's book How I Sold... he tells of a blog that he wrote in November of 2010, he said it "is the blog that changed my life."  It is titled "Why I Love Joe Paterno and My Mom!"  In that blog John talks about how his father died when he was only two and how his mother never remarried.  She told him one day to find a role model to look up to, to choose a person of high character...and that "he will never let you down."  When I read that, my heart sank.  Oh no! I thought.  When John wrote and published this book, publicly announcing his role model, a man he says he has loved for 44 years, he had no idea what the near future held.  And now with the recent bad publicity and the firing of Joe Paterno from Penn State, I worried how it made John feel.  I felt his pain.  I have been disappointed by mankind.  I have been guilty of putting people high up on a pedestal thinking they could do no wrong.  But I since have learned that is "unfair" and I'm only setting myself up for disappointment.  We all have and will fail at some point in our lives, more than once.  I have learned that if I put my faith in mankind that they will ALWAYs let me down.  It say in Hebrews 13:5 that God will never leave you or forsake you.  And God will NEVER let you down.  So as far as a role model goes, for me, I'm sticking with God because He is the ONLY ONE that will never disappoint me.

For Now,
Sherrie Gant
A Sacred Place, Memoirs of a Female Hunter
www.sherriegant.com

  www.sherriegant.com
I've never shot a bow and arrow unless you count the toy bow made from a green willow branch and twine that my older sister and I made when playing cowboy and indian as children.  We'd race around bareback on our horses pretending, however we both always wanted to be the indian, so she was Nez Perce on her appaloosa gelding and I was Cherokee on my pinto pony.  I know that the term is politically incorrect and I don't mean to offend anyone.  I come from a long line of native Americans from both sides of my family and respect all heritage.  However we watched the great westerns of the times on television and modeled our play accordingly. 
    Like Native Americans, my family has hunted big game for food since before my birth.  My mother was eight months pregnant with me during that hunting season.   We rifle hunt, we always have.  We have never archery hunted.  I have a great respect for skilled archers.  I know that one needs to be skilled to hunt properly with a rifle  as well but I've always been impressed by people that are successful at bow hunting, especially harvesting bull elk.  I have been in close proximity of large branched bulls during rifle season and believe me it's exciting, but the thought of bugling in a huge angry testosterone filled branched bull elk is not only thrilling but terrifying.  I've heard stories where an agitated bull came within feet of the bugler.  So close that the hunter felt the animals steamy breath as he snorted over the large log where the hunter swatted in retreat. 
    I've seen negative results from both, rifle and bow hunters, where animals where fatally wounded and lost.  Sometime the result of a mistake or just bad luck, but often the result of an irresponsible hunter taking a shot that should have been passed upon or not bothering to go look after taking the shot, assuming that they missed when the animal didn't fall to immediate death.
    Myself, I will probably never archery hunt, I'm too much a creature of habit.  I enjoy the hunt.  Walking through the thick timber and climbing steep terrain in hopes of stalking or flushing an animal.  I have a difficult time sitting still.  I feel like I'm missing something just over the next ridge and I have to go see.  I lost an wounded animal once, my first year elk hunting...a mistake I vowed to never repeat.  I have honed my rifle skills since that day 30 years ago.  For that reason is why I'll never attempt to archery hunt.  The fear of wounding an animal and the thought of it suffering and dieing of infection is more than I could personally bare.

For Now
Sherrie Gant
A Sacred Place, Memoirs of a Female Hunter
www.sherriegant.com