As many writers probably do, Jeanette Hardage found the process of promoting her own writing to be unpleasant work. She admitted in a 2004 letter to a friend that she didn’t like marketing, and as a result, “my failing is that I don’t mail my work out often enough.” She disliked the rejections and endless rounds of editing involved in getting published.
One piece of work that she did try several times to get published was a poem originally entitled, “Demoralized? Not Me!” She noted that it was accepted for publication by Christian Communication in 1999 (there have been a number of magazines/publishers with names similar to that, so it is not clear which one she was referring to). Unfortunately, it was then rejected prior to publication, after a new editor joined that organization in 2000.
This gave the episode an ironic spin. Despite her claim in the original poem title about not being demoralized, this turn of events must have been quite disappointing. Here is her accepted-then-rejected poem, which she had renamed by 2008.
Writer’s Lament
I generalized and specialized,
Categorized and quoted,
Romanticized, westernized,
Fictionalized and noted.
And you said, “Keep trying!”I researched and reported,
Detailed and indexed,
Featured and compared,
Prefaced and appendixed.
And you said, “Keep trying!”I characterized, revitalized,
Queried and submitted,
Publicized, computerized,
Edited and waited.
And you said, “Keep trying!”
And you said, “Keep trying!”
And you said . . .