OPEN CALL - The Rejection Palace
Deadline 1st August
Hi if you’re new here. It’s lovely to meet you. I’m Claire. I’m an Engagement Consultant and Mentor. I’m based on the Northumberland Coast and it’s 3 days until our new puppy, a blue whippet named Stella born in the in-between times arrives home…
Hi loves,
How’s your day going?
I’ve been thinking a lot about words; yours and mine.
About multiple things being true at once. About threads from therapy sessions being knitted into beautiful cosy rainbow coloured scarves.
We write tens of thousands of words each year. For all sorts of reasons.
We write birthday cards swirling letters to fill spaces we should have been in, fill in boring forms, write newsletters, social media posts, notes to ourselves, grocery lists and more.
How many words do we/ could we write in a year… a lifetime…?
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My invitation?
To write for yourself… something that is definitely just for you.
Something that doesn’t hold back.
Where words spiral out of darkness into light onto many many pages.
On the topic of rejection…
It’s universal, it’s uncomfortable, it’s the source of much shame…
The words we speak of… the stories that keep us from shining our truest brightest light;
We didn’t know they lived in us.
Not really, not the enormity of them.
There’s a pause after the frenzy of the pen…
Through the rolling tears we ask; who are these for?
For the next fire?
Perhaps for someone else? A friend to hold in conversation?
Perhaps to re-write into letter we never sent?
Perhaps for someone we don’t know but who will feel so deeply witnessed by reading them…
Maybe there’s a calling that we write the story that enabled you to alchemise rejection into hope…
…just for you.
And then…
Perhaps that story…
asks to be written more publicly…
…might help others heal.
Might be inside a book…
Called ‘The Rejection Palace’
…will be something you are spine tingly proud of.
What started as a cathartic journalling process could be one to soothe the soul of others.
That’s true of at least one that I’ve written.
That one will be delivered right here to your inbox next weekend.
I want to create space, an invitation for your story of rejection too.
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Reminder… 1st August..
This is a brief reminder that the first deadline for receiving your 500 word memoir story on the topic of ‘rejection’ is coming up.
The Rejection Palace will be professionally edited and placed in an anthology right here on Substack (and later in a book).
The stories are born out of a difficult emotion and in reading them, we are invited to reflect and find hope for now and for our future of self expression, healing and being the person we are called to be in the world.
More on all the guidelines here;
See you next week,
Claire
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Incase you missed it;
A guest post of love and loss - https://satyarobyn.substack.com/p/blue-sheen-of-moon
https://open.substack.com/pub/susankuenzi/p/affirmation-criticism-and-rejection?r=22wfou&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Here's a link to my article about rejection and criticism.
So excited/nervous! Submitted my story today! 🥰🥰