A Gentle Kick in the Pants

I was almost ready to quit yesterday. I was so down, and upset, and discouraged, I was ready to throw in the towel and admit defeat.

Another rejection. Another person who thought my story/my abilities simply weren't good enough. Surely if so many people thought that, then this must be true:

I mustn't be able to write. My stories mustn't be much good at all.

I was, admittedly, not in the best frame of mind for rational thought, but the logic is nevertheless quite sound.

Then along came Gerard de Marigny, a friend and fellow author I met online at LinkedIn.com. Apparently, I roused at him in a conversation. I have absolutely no recollection of that at all... but I don't doubt it. I have a tendency to voice my opinion rather definitely (not cruelly, just decidedly... definite).

He reviewed my anthology The Dying God & Other Stories for me... and I cried a little. It was such a lovely review. You can read it HERE.

It was also a just-in-the-nick-of-time rescue from my melancholic defeat.

Sometimes, I think the universe is trying to tell me something. Let's hope it's not just a cruel prank and I don't end up frustrated, disappointed and bitter...

Only time will tell, I suppose.

Here's today's Forgotten English (I must say, it looks awfully Welsh to me):

Bryn Mawryn

A woman who has been connected with Bryn Mawr College as an undergraduate.

- Howard Savage's Slang from Bryn Mawr College, 1922

Bryn Mawr looks like a Welsh name. I should know - in my story The Taming of Man I (from The Dying God & Other Stories), I have a character Cysgod Mawr. It is a Welsh name, meaning Great Shadow (as in large). Mawr means large/great. Do you think the founder of the college was a Welshman?