Submitted and Rejected by Camphor Press

 3-13-18 

      Camphor Press has seven samples of my creative writing. I sent three after texting someone asking if I could, and was asked to send a few more. Camphor Press is the Taipei-U.K. based publisher that put out The Lord of Taiwan, the new novel about Koxinga, the book yesterday I contacted the author and publisher to inquire about getting. I didn’t know about them before yesterday. Since their focus is East Asian literature, I am on the right track. 

3-14-18 

      Each of those writings I thoroughly enjoyed writing and tweaking, though it behooves me to say I must tweak them some more. For example, the excerpt from Life’s Progressive Movement, “Welcome to Free China,” refers to the same woman Emerson saw on the street outside the youth hostel as Jeanette and Amy, in one paragraph. The recounting of the thinly veiled autobiographical incident, though some would say changes with time, is as close to the truth as a CTTV could produce because of the hindsight called ‘personal journal’ and repeating the story dozens of times to dozens of people over forty years.

      Each of those writings kept me entertained in the cleanest way with no repercussion, as this writing I now commit to pixel has, having awoken at 1am due to excessive sleep and a mosquito in the bedroom. Instead of panicking or taking drugs, or even reading to make me sleepy, writing in the wee hours clears my mind without wasting my time; not wasting time because I enjoy doing it. Though Tanuki meows and scratches at the study room window, I can ignore him and not let him detract from my writing just as a mosquito doesn’t ruin a night’s sleep but affords me an opportunity to have solitude. The trick I must perform now is to not eat during these interludes so that I can lose weight.

     Publishing or not publishing my creative writing doesn’t change the equation, even if others place a monetary value on it. When I read over what I have written, it pays me back because I realize the thousands of stories it took to get me here; I have such depth that exists whether it is appreciated with money or views on Facebook shares. All that a company publishing my work means to me is that I don’t have to pay to publish it myself. 

3-14-18

     John sent me a bad news e-mail from Camphor Press rejecting publication of my creative writing. He explained what he thought my writing deficits were but none was as critical as my political leanings (“quirkiness”) that would make my work un-sellable, according to their editorial parameters. I wrote back thanking him for looking but understood their stance. He looked into my two self-published works and their lack of following as part of their decision; that is unfair since I didn’t promote them or even pay extra for Amazon Kindle distribution that he used for an excuse. He did, however, like “Return of the Ami Native” the best of the seven samples I sent. A writer gets dozens of rejection letter before one acceptance and I am no different. I had no sales campaign and only sent a text message to Camphor press on a whim. It would have been nice if they liked my work but I feel no disappointment that they didn’t. An anarchist publisher would appreciate my asides better. I have to send my works to an open-minded publishing house if I seriously want to get published.