Category Archives: Rejections

Just Wait! A short story rejected in grade school becomes a cause of action

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In elementary school, back in the 1950s, we were never given writing assignments, and I never imagined there were any living authors. I pictured a cemetery filled with tombstones of my favorite writers with their last names first, like card catalogs in the library: Baum, L. Frank 1856-1919. Writing – the pleasure of articulating interior worlds sensed but not seen – was something I did on my own. I was in eighth grade before I got a chance to write a story for school. My eighth-grade English teacher, Mr. Mortem, was a malevolent-looking man with a low brow and small beady eyes. We joked that he moonlighted as an axe murderer. But he was even scarier as an English teacher. He terrorized us with menacing-sounding exams called “evaluations,” which turned out to be ordinary multiple-choice tests. But he was the first teacher to give us an assignment to write a short story. “Remember,” Mr. Mortem called as we filed out of class, “no stories from TV!” I hardly heard him. I was … Read on

Pamela Jane is the author of over thirty books from board books to memoir. She is also a writing coach, freelance writer, and public speaker. Learn more about her by booking a school visit, perusing her blog, or reading her memoir, An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer's Story.

Why Jane Austen and Cats?

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I have no idea why or how I came up with idea of Pride and Prejudice and Kitties – a thoroughly ridiculous idea at best!  But then, Jane herself has an appreciation of the ridiculous.  And I like having fantasies about my cat’s  pursuits and preoccupations.  Isn’t that what cat-lovers do, have fantasies about their cats?  Dog-lovers don’t have fantasies because dogs act out everything and leave no room for the imagined. When our book came out, my coauthor, Debbie and I, were roundly accused of copying Pride and Prejudice and Zombies..  But the (unhappy) truth was we’d had been working on our concept and honing our query for over six years. Not to mention that it took almost eighty agents before we found one who sold the book. Originally the publisher asked for 100,000 words to go with the photos – almost as many words as in Pride and Prejudice itself!  We got them down to 30,000 but even now … Read on

Pamela Jane is the author of over thirty books from board books to memoir. She is also a writing coach, freelance writer, and public speaker. Learn more about her by booking a school visit, perusing her blog, or reading her memoir, An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer's Story.

A Writer’s Inner Cosmos or Don’t Underestimate Yourself!

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Note: This post was originally published in a slightly altered form at womensmemoirs.com. My late kitty, Mittens, didn’t have much personality.  As my friend and co-author, Debbie, once observed, “he’s one notch above a stuffed animal.”  I argued for two notches, but she had a point.  Poor guy.  It wasn’t his fault that he was born with no street-smarts or even house-smarts, and slept 23-3/4 hours a day.  He was also terribly timid and ran away meowing if he even saw an ant.  The most dangerous thing he ever attacked was a Starbucks straw.  So imagine my shock and amazement when Mittens caught and killed a mouse in our living room, just a few weeks before he died. It goes to show, you never know what someone is capable of.  Furthermore, “what someone is capable of” is not fixed or finite; it changes and shifts as we evolve.  I’ve seen this truth play out (to one mouse’s misfortune) in many … Read on

Pamela Jane is the author of over thirty books from board books to memoir. She is also a writing coach, freelance writer, and public speaker. Learn more about her by booking a school visit, perusing her blog, or reading her memoir, An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer's Story.

How our “Pride and Prejudice and Kitties” Query Survived 75 Agents

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Until now, we’ve generally referred to the query letter that sold our book, Pride and Prejudice and Kitties, as having been sent to “X” number of agents.  But now, thanks to Galley Cat at Media Bistro, the word is out that our query letter was rejected by 75 agents  well – 74 because we did finally sell the book.  You can read our query here. Actually, during the submission process we did manage to capture the attention of several agents.  The problem was that most were daunted by the logistics of taking 100 funny photographs of cats in Regency settings.  Also, to be honest, it took Debbie and me several years to clarify and define our concept for the book. … Read on

Pamela Jane is the author of over thirty books from board books to memoir. She is also a writing coach, freelance writer, and public speaker. Learn more about her by booking a school visit, perusing her blog, or reading her memoir, An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer's Story.