B. Patrick Lonberg

A few days back I received my most recent rejection for a short story. That's my final one (for now) folks! I have no outstanding submissions, a clean slate.

Hundreds of rejections in, and with several (paid) publications under my belt, I can say that the industry standard of 1-2% acceptance rates seems pretty legit. I'm standing at a 1.5% career "success" rate for submissions. I should say acceptance rate, because I've learned a lot, and gotten a lot of personal feedback (almost 15%, which is much higher than average, I'm told).

I am not planning on subbing short stories anytime soon - I'm not writing new ones at the moment, either.

Right now I'm focusing on novel writing, and of late, getting some serious words on the page.

I mean, really, who? With children, a spouse, a full time job, chores, etc... how can we be expected to take on what amounts to a second job to write? Hobbies aren’t a second job, but if you ever want to be a professional writer, you have to take your “hobby” and make a job out of it... killing it as a hobby.

I loved cooking, became a chef, and killed my hobby. I loved brewing, became a brewer, and killed my hobby. I’m not sure I “love” writing. I’m obviously not doing all that much of it in my free time, like I did with cooking and brewing. But I’m pretty good at it. I’d been thinking maybe it was a bright idea to take something I liked doing but didn’t necessarily love doing, and make a job out of that, because it would leave me with hobbies it was easier to build up momentum to do...

but while I think I have the chops to be a writer, I don’t have the will to fight the inertia, or the passion to basically take on another job.

So maybe I’ll never be a writer. I don’t know.

And it isn't disappointing.

1 new submission

Roots - classic, well-researched historical fiction

Supervillain's Guide to being a Fat Kid - MG about body positivity and "goodness"

American Spy - spy book in the African diaspora

Trashlands - post-apocalyptic

Golden Son - second in a SciFi/Space Opera series

The High Season - beach read thriller

Emma - classic English novel

Sum - flash fiction/poetry/parables about the afterlife

I followed that up with reading the submissions from both of the guys in my writing group before our meeting Sunday.

That was topped off with going over the preliminary notes that one of them made on my submission.

I just had my heart broken by a 107 day rejection from a market that averages 20 days per rejection, and rejects more than 99% of its submissions.

Someday soon I will look upon this as an accomplishment. I made it pretty far.

An open letter to the leadership of the International Tennis Federation,

My family enjoys watching tennis. My son has been playing tennis for much of his life. We started him before he turned three - his inherent athleticism convincing his coaches that he was ready to start before his third birthday, when their classes usually begin. A year in, and he was continuing to play with kids more than year older than him, often acting as his coach's demonstration assistant. Our family went to The Western & Southern Open in 2019 to see the pros play, and he impressed the children's coaches there with his ability. We love tennis. And he is a potential competitor.

With Covid ravaging our country, we've unfortunately had to take him out of tennis lessons. We were preparing to re-enroll him once his sister can be vaccinated, though at the moment she's ineligible at only three years old. We're working as a family to keep her safe, and we're working to keep our neighbors safe as well.

Recently, Covid found our family, even though we've done everything we can to keep ourselves and others healthy. We've given up a lot, and it is pretty bleak to feel like all we've given up wasn't enough; it has been hard seeing people flout public safety and being unwilling to sacrifice anything for our youngest and most susceptible members.

We were proud of the WTA's recent stance against the Chinese government - we felt like tennis was taking a stand for justice.

But now, your willingness to allow Djokovic to play has us baffled.

How can you send my children the message that my daughter's health doesn't matter to society? How can you allow a player who openly flouts rules and endangers people repeatedly to play with those who are taking care of their neighbors? How am I supposed to explain this to my son? Djokovic can endanger children like his sister, who is now sick with Covid, and yet Djokovic can play with everybody else?

After Covid is over, how can I justify to myself that my daughter - let alone my son - can ethically play tennis?

The Women's Tennis Association has done right by Peng Shuai and tennis players everywhere. Our sisters have made an ethical example for you to follow. Do the right thing here, and send the right message to all the kids who will watch tennis in the coming weeks.

Otherwise, I feel like you'll just become another of the millions of people who have forgotten our society's youngest and most susceptible members. And my children will have no place in that version of tennis.

Sincerely,