To be a writer is to embrace rejection as a way of life. –Dana Stabenow

So there I was, sitting at the Edgars. A Cold Day for Murder had been nominated for one so you will understand why I was not wholly in my body in that moment, so it took a while to recognize that Donald Westlake — the creator of Dortmunder himself — was up on stage talking about…rejection?

Yes. Donald Westlake. Some idiot publisher had actually rejected a manuscript by Donald Westlake. One can only hope that the acquisitions editor responsible for that decision adjourned to a life of refiling the same index card down at City Hall shortly thereafter. But I doubt it.

Because Westlake then went on to talk about the hundred and four other rejections he received before he finally sold his first book. He didn’t throw the rejection letters into the circular file; no, no, he tacked them to the wall over his desk, each time shouting into the ether “Je ne regrette rien!” and going right back to work.

I don’t remember what I said that night when I got up to accept my award but I have never forgotten what he did.

My advice to every beginning writer is this: Grow a carapace.

As in a shell. Body armor. Mental discipline. To be a writer is to embrace rejection as a way of life. Rejection comes in many weird and wondrous forms. I remember being on a radio show in Anchorage when someone called in to yell at me about Kate being a teetotaler.

Turned out he owned a liquor store.

Carapace. Start construction now.

To write a book is to risk being shot at in public. –Stendahl

#thiswritinglife Chatter Donald Westlake Edgars