After posting on this blog for the first time yesterday I was feeling pretty inspired to do something but didn't quite know what to do with that inspiration. I read my book for a little while (I'm re-reading Lolita--what could possibly be more inspiring than the prose of Nabokov) and then I did something really big. For the first time ever, I submitted some of my poetry to a literary journal, Tin House.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't have any delusions of grandeur that my poems will be accepted to one of the top literary magazines out there first try. I'm probably not there yet. But now that I've submitted somewhere I think it will be easier for me to press that send button or put that letter in the mail again. My plan is to put a few submissions into a few different magazines every day in hopes that while wading through pile of rejection letters, one of them might be a yes. At this point I don't even care if I get paid for my work, I just want to be a published author.

This may sound a little depressing and like I don't have faith in my talents. It's not that, I'm just trying to be realistic. Some of the best authors in the world faced a long string of rejections before finally becoming as famous as they are today. So, without getting my hopes way up, I'm trying to take that first step. Because if it takes being told no 20 or 50 times before I get a yes, then I guess I better start now.