OK, so I call myself an aspiring children's writer.  I am not published, but do belong to SCBWI and am active in my chapter.  I have written a few things and have one manuscript that I did send out to some publishers in January.  From there, I have collected a few rejection letters, nothing I did not expect.

There is one person in my SCBWI critique group that I consider a mentor.  She has really encouraged me to write and to submit things.  She has been hounding me about submitting my one completed manuscript to some magazines, such as Highlights, Cricket, etc.

Well, I finally did it.  I finally worked up the nerve to put it out there again.  Last week I sent it out to Highlights, Cricket and Balzer & Bray (because we had a "free pass" to send an unsolicited manuscript to a senior editor for being a member of Illinois SCBWI).  So now I wait again. 

I received a rejection letter back from Balzer & Bray yesterday.  But it was a nice one, not a form letter.  The editor actually addressed me personally, told me she liked the story and thought it was cute, but she did not fall in love with it, therefore she had to pass this time. 

That was my first non-form rejection letter!!  I must be moving up in the world!!

So, I will continue to keep my fingers crossed and start working on some other things I have had in my head for a while now. 

One of these days........................