The Sparrow's Nest

The other day, I had to take my sister to see her school counselor before school started. The counselors thought I was an incoming freshman, except one. She thought I was my sister's mother. Now if that were so, I would have given birth at eleven. What was going on in that woman's head? I have no clue. Maybe it was the color of my skin. Anyway, I didn't even correct her when she said she had been wanting to see me about some school stuff and a few problems my sister-daughter had. I was like, "Okay!" I sat down in the mommy chair and had a nice chat, and some problems worked out and a school schedule and a clear path to graduation for my sister. My other sister sat in back with a grin on her face and the sister that we were there for rolled with the punches, too. It was pretty awesome. A stink man came in and left a stench in the room. Next time he came in I covered my nose. A woman with an attitude of "woman power" walked in and interrupted the meeti...

After getting a mass of rejection letters in one week, it felt like the world was coming to an end. Three came in one day. I had to go cry. My writing buddies were all getting accepted left and right, I was truly happy for them--but what about me? What was wrong with my stories? Suddenly, it all came clear. NOTHING was wrong. I suddenly snapped. I grew furious. How dare the editors say my stories couldn't be published! How DARE they! I went mad, I went looking for magazines like never before. I cut out all the magazines that said they didn't accept simultaneous submissions--because that can be a one-way ticket to a long wait with a rejection letter at the end of it. By then, the deadlines for the other magazines have closed. The night of the day that I snapped, I received an acceptance letter. A few weeks later I got another one, and the next day, another one. There were rejection letters in between, but I had hope because I had sent the stories out to multiple magazines. O...