Forever

I was standing in line at the post office earlier this week, and the woman in front of me asked the postal worker when the next rate increase would be.  "May" was his reply.  Good grief!!  I guess stamps are going to go up a couple of cents every year from here on out, and since the last rejection letter that I got was from a submission that I had sent in almost a year ago . . . the "forever stamp" is my new best friend.

I'm loving the new trend of agents and editors going paperless and allowing email submissions, but some people still want to use snail mail with an SASE.  A couple of years ago, I remember sending in a submission without realizing that the rates were changing the next month.  I frantically emailed the editor wondering what to do  . . . what to do?  At first, I thought, "Hey, maybe this will give me an 'in' with the editor--a legitimate reason to touch base."  The reality was that I never heard a word, even after I snail mailed a new SASE with proper postage and I drove myself crazy wondering "what if".  

So, writer friends who are still in the "pre-published" category out there--buy a roll of forever stamps and pat yourself on the back for using such brilliant foresight.  I've still got some very old, presumed to be stale, submissions out there--but I used my forever stamp, so I can still hold out hope that I will hear from one of them.  Someday.

I just hope I don't have to wait forever.