In the overall scheme of things – onslaught against men, women and children in Aleppo, and all the silent killing wars going on outside media interest – a rejection of my work by another agent doesn’t rate anywhere on the Richter scale. Still. Having spent most of the day coaching children considered sub-par, I can’t help feeling sub-par myself when I come home to a  rejection in my email. Since I don’t know the agents personally, maybe I wouldn’t want them anywhere near my writing anyway. I file the rejection. Do my best not to knock or criticize my  own work for failing to hold and grip a stranger’s attention. Rejection is part of the game, etc. Maybe my writing is too “quiet” or not…never mind. My writing is what it is. Agents and publishers have their own agenda. If I don’t fit their expectations for a commercial venture worth their investment, I don’t fit, there’s nothing else to say about it.

A buzz – a small one – seems to be building around the freeing of Turkish writer Asli Erdogan. Whether the buzz will be sufficient to earn her freedom, who knows. Pawns in political games. After all, if world leaders can cave in to Putin and let him talk of friendship as he helps Assad pound his people out of existence, will they bother disturbing the Turkish president over a mere writer, no matter how published she may be?

The children. Maybe I’ll have managed to get a few of them feeling better about their own worth. Maybe that’s as good as it will get in terms of lifetime achievement. But I wouldn’t mind my writing touching other people and making sense to them. If ever it happens, it won’t be because I’ll have changed my way of writing to suit someone else’s tastes. So, on with the rejections, I guess, until such time as someone does say “hey, what have we here?”

***

And yes, the petition – again and again and again. You’ll see: if Asli Erdogan goes free, you’ll be glad you contributed to her freedom, if only with one click.