FOR THE LOVE OF IT

   by Kathy Cannon Wiechman


If you have followed this blog, you know that I have been writing since I was a child. I loved it then. I love it still.

In one recent post, called THE SPIDER, I talked about persistence and vowed to never give up. I have never been tempted to give up writing because I write for the love of it. However, I have often threatened to give up submitting my work. Rejection hurts!

I rarely mention how many years I have been submitting, because I feel it makes me sound like such a failure. Would someone say, “If she hasn’t been published in all that time, she must not be very good.”? Today I confess. Earlier this year I marked 39 years since I first submitted a novel manuscript to an editor. 39 years of submitting and 39 years of the pain of rejection. But I refused to give up. And after all, I love to write.

I received some consolation. A few of my poems were published, and I won prizes with some of my short stories. And many of you have read my blog posts and left encouraging comments. But a novel contract remained out of reach.

Until now!

Last week, Calkins Creek (American history imprint of Highlights/Boyds Mills Press) offered me a contract on Novel #11, titled LIKE A RIVER. It was worth the wait! A novel I wrote for young readers will finally be available to be read by them. It’s what I dreamed of for almost 40 years. I’m still pinching myself.


I’ll keep you posted here on LIKE A RIVER’s progress toward publication. I hope you all will read it when it launches.

But when I begin the next novel and the one after that, it will be for the love of it. After all, that’s the real reason I write.