Publishing Defacing Poetry

I've heard that once you've worked on a piece of writing so long that you hate it, it is finally ready for publication.  If this is true, then my newest book, Defacing Poetry, is ready!  I began writing the novella by this name in 2002 and was thrilled with the idea behind it.  I presented it to my writing class at University and worked on it with then Writer-in-Residence, Jeannette Lynes.  She encouraged me to enter it as a work-in-progress for a Saskatchewan Arts grant.  I did, but was not selected.  I revised it and began sending it to publishers.  It was rejected again and again -- kindly, but, unfortunately, decidedly.  So, finally, I put it aside and started writing Subgirl.

Six self-published books later, I dug it up again.  Parts of the book would come to mind occasionally and I had to try again.  I decided, for various reasons I wrote about in an earlier post, to publish it under a nom de plume - Adelle Samson - taking the beginnings of my first and last names to create the handle.  I added some of my short stories to make the book more substantial and interesting.  But then I left it.  Was it good enough?  It's unlike my other books.  Less upbeat, less action.

At last, with the encouragement of my wonderful writer's group, I have put my doubts and dissatisfaction out of mind.  I have published it under my own name because it is my writing.  Besides, my memory is getting fuzzy with age and keeping track of another name and identity is too much for me.

I still love parts of my book.  I'm especially proud of my short stories Sea Witch and To The Grave.  All of my stories started with an idea which completely enraptured me.  I think, by hating my book, I mean that the obsession has faded, but still, there remains something I'm proud of.  I hope my readers will be gracious enough to notice these little embers and to lose themselves in my wild imagining.