I have a new book! Cake and Pewter Chronicles, a cozy fantasy collection, is forthcoming November 30, 2026, from Clay Patin Press. And yes, I wrote every bit of it in the throes of rejection.

As of this blog post, in fact, I’ve received sixty-two rejection letters related to my writing this year. Compare that to twenty-seven acceptance letters. That’s a lot of rejection. The letters aren’t all about my stories, of course. Some have to do with author events, applications to writing workshops, and the like. Still, they’re acceptance and rejection letters. And obviously, I’m counting.

I count acceptance letters to celebrate my successes. It’s so easy to lose sight of things worth celebrating and to focus, instead, on disappointments. So, I’m trying to shift the balance of my attention.

I treat myself to little celebratory things (like extra good coffee!) in acknowledgement of acceptance letters. I get photographs of myself with hot-off-the-press author copies of stories when there are a hard copies to be had. I keep a little bookshelf dedicated to those hard copies and take note as the collection grows. In the face of our culture’s messaging about what we lack, aren’t doing enough of, don’t have enough of, or need to fix, I count acceptance letters because it’s important to dwell on the active presence of good things at least as much as I dwell on their absence.

And yet, even when I try to focus on good, encouraging things, emotions go where they will. I can hardly ignore the rejection letters. I feel them. Thus, I pay attention to those letters, as well.

Depending on content or circumstance, some rejection letters hit harder than others. And the sheer number of rejections can feel weighty, especially if they arrive too close together. I counted my rejection letters this year in an effort to reframe that experience.

I set a goal of gathering 100 rejections for 2026, knowing that in an effort to find a traditional publisher for my fantasy novel manuscript, I’d likely rack up rejections even if I didn’t quite hit the 100 mark. So, I promised myself rewards at rejection number twenty-five, fifty, seventy-five, and 100. Then, theoretically, I could celebrate each rejection as putting me even closer to a hoped-for reward.

It did help. A little.

And yet, I struggled with not finding a traditional publisher for my fantasy novel. I enjoyed my characters and their fantasy world so much that I wanted to write more about their lives. But why write a sequel novel when the first manuscript isn’t even finding a publisher?

So, while I waited, I instead wrote short stories set in the same fantasy world of the novel, a place called Vallauris. I used minor characters from that unpublished novel, too. My blog post from earlier this summer, “Practicing Impatience and ‘The Monk’s Knife’,” has already reflected a little on that experience. Now that even more time has passed, I can say with certainty that short story writing has brought remarkable satisfaction in giving me a chance to bring those minor characters to a little more life. I’ve certainly had more luck finding places to publish them. I found publishers for all my short stories set in Vallauris! The first to get published, Cake and Pewter, is a novelette whose name I’ve adopted for the whole series.

I’ve enjoyed this writing experience immensely, and it’s led me to reflect on how I navigate rejection, which is invariably part of life and of creative work. This last year has emphasized how little the reward system works for me. My plan of spaced-out rewards for hitting rejection benchmarks didn’t nourish me anywhere near as well as the regular practice of writing did.

Brainstorming, crafting, and finding some way to share stories has energized me. Thankfully, during this time I stumbled across Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew and her book The Release: Creativity and Freedom After the Writing Is Done, where she explores how creatives measure their efforts’ worth. It’s felt like great wisdom to focus on the intrinsic enjoyment of something (for me, writing) to keep motivated, engaged, relatively upbeat, and nourished at some basic level. Afterall, what good will I be to any other person, work, or cause if I’ve not found a critical mass of nourishment for my own spirits?

And, as I’ve said, this time of writing while wading through rejection letters has resulted in a book. Cake and Pewter Chronicles, the collection of those short stories and novelettes set in the fantasy world of Vallauris, is forthcoming November 30, 2026, in paperback and e-book editions. (The author-narrated audiobook edition will be available soon after.)

I don’t imagine that simply keeping on keeping on with a hobby is the answer for every person in every situation, but it’s the learning I’ve gleaned for myself this year. When rejections pile up, I do best by keeping on with a practice I find nourishing. I hopefully grow with any feedback. Still, I’ve tried not to let feedback on the work eclipse my enjoyment of practicing of the work, itself.

If you’re interested in the results, you can preorder the Cake and Pewter Chronicles today and read the stories cover-to-cover starting November 30. You can also start reading the collection in my Substack “serial fiction” section, where I’ll release a new Cake and Pewter story each month now through March 2027. Today’s Cake and Pewter Substack release is “To Pause for the Watch,” which includes my own voice-over narration at the top. In this story, a sister of a religious order disobeys her superior on instincts she only half understands, and it just might bring her to the attention of the divine.

I hope you enjoy the story.

I also hope you find the approach that best serves you as you face whatever experiences of rejection you may be facing in your own efforts. Rejections come. They simply do. But other, more nourishing things may also be happening alongside them, and I wish you joy and plenty of time spent in those.