potato salad (poem) by Josephine M Bohen on AuthorsDen

Reviewed by Karla Dorman, The StormSpinner

Reviewed on March 21, 2003

*LOL at robert judeace's comment* girl...anyone rejects YOUR work is CRAZY! :) if i were a publisher, you'd be my star! :) and YUM, homemade potato salad?? care for company? *grins* i love homemade potato salad...and your writes *sigh* i'd be in heaven. :) (((HUGS))) and never let 'em see you sweat...when you hit, you're gonna hit big, i have faith in you...love, karla. :)

Reviewed by Sue Hess

Reviewed on March 17, 2003

just because he didn't care for your work, it isn't saying it is bad, i think alan tried to say that but i feel stupid saying this since i am in dreamvirus this month. it was just luck of the draw i'm sure, my stuff hit the day alan was out with a toothache

Reviewed by Karen Lynn Vidra, The Texas Tornado

Reviewed on March 17, 2003

i love potato salad, josie! i am sorry you got another rejection slip, but it happens to all of us at one time or another, and so do the negative comments, but we are better than that! just hold your head up high, and keep on writing; we love your style here at the den! love, your texas friend, karen lynn. (((HUGS))) :) (haphazard smile; am feelin' a wee bit sad today; 13 years ago, karla's and my mom died on this day.) :( (check out the prose i did; i wrote a letter to our dead mother.)

Reviewed by Alan Peart

Reviewed on March 17, 2003

Sorry if I came across as insincere to you, Josie. I don't know if there's a good way to tell someone you don't want to use their poetry for your magazine, but I always found that I hated rejections less if an editor tried to give me constructive reasons. This may not apply to everyone, but I guess I should make it clear that a) I wasn't trying to criticize you, and b) I won't bite you :-) Our magazine is non-profit (translation - no $ except those that come out of my pocket) and full of stuff that's based on our own tastes, and I don't have to apologize to anyone for that. Maybe if Bukowski had submitted to us we'd have told him no as well, who knows. I doubt it would have stopped him getting famous.
I'm not trying to say that your attitude isn't helpful to you. I have always gotten angry with editors, and it's helped me to stick to my own style and do things my way. I'm just trying to give you a hint that the reality of the person you feel angry with may be very different to your idea of them.

I notice there are a couple of ex-writtenbyme.com people commenting here...some of them might remember me as "dreamvirus" back in the day...just wanted to say hi

Reviewed by Larry Skahill

Reviewed on March 17, 2003

God, I wish I was good enough that someone would call my work didactic
and I don't even EAT potato salad well
you are so good this one even got you a marriage proposal - what other measure of talent matters?

Reviewed by jude forese

Reviewed on March 17, 2003

never give up the fight! (next time send them some potato salad ;) it might do wonders;)

Reviewed by La Belle Rouge (Reader)

Reviewed on March 17, 2003

Just remember the greatest writers have always gotten a fist full of rejection slips before someone had enough sense to recognize their greatness!

Reviewed by the phantom pheonix (Reader)

Reviewed on March 17, 2003

that is why im so fearful of publication for I fear i amy give up if told not good but after the response of all you wonderful peots here imight try it sometime soon but you are a wonderful poet and you should be published I like your peotry alot

Reviewed by a- maryllis

Reviewed on March 17, 2003

:) Your poetry is AWESOME.... keep trying you'll get there!! :)

Reviewed by Sara Coslett

Reviewed on March 17, 2003

Great poem Josie. Thanks for the little peak into the bad, mad world of publishing. Keep trying because "didactic" is good.

And write up your recipe for potato salad for all of us. That way we'll still get great didactic poety:

Main Entry: di·dac·tic
Function: adjective

1 a : designed or intended to teach b : intended to convey instruction and information as well as pleasure and entertainment
2 : making moral observations

Reviewed by Paul Berube

Reviewed on March 17, 2003

Josie, excellent write. I guess most of us have been there by the comments. I love homemade potato salad.

Reviewed by Bhuwan Thapaliya

Reviewed on March 17, 2003

WOnderful write...BHUWAN

Reviewed by Amor Sabor

Reviewed on March 16, 2003

You'll know when you are in the big leagues when you get a fistful of rejection slips...Josie, looks like you're already on the road to getting there. The time will come when some will be accepted and others won't and it won't bother you in the least then because under your breath you will say... "Que comen caca" (they can eat poop) the next time you get a rejection slip. That's how we break in and finally make it to some degree...you'll see. Be proud of yourself because for 1) you know you're good and 2) at least you have taken the first steps that, odds show, many never take.
Amor

Reviewed by Erin Kelly-Moen

Reviewed on March 16, 2003

Aw, Josie, I love your writings! Homework, yep, I've read that and didn't do it, waiting to hear from two web sites myself...hate this waiting! Wish I could make good potato salad but that's my husband's dish! Wonderful write!! :)

Reviewed by E T Waldron

Reviewed on March 16, 2003

I like your attitude and your daughter is right, and I love potato salad;-)chin up Josie we all get rejected now and then some more than others, as long as you can handle it like you do you'll be fine;-)

Reviewed by Elizabeth Taylor (Reader)

Reviewed on March 16, 2003

Rejection is part of the process. If you don't have a shoe box full of rejections, you are not a writer. [this from a writer friend who has a shoe box full] I only had five before I found a publisher...and I felt abused. Chin up, submit, submit, submit. Poetry is harder to sell than prose.
Your poetry is GOOD !

~e

Reviewed by Marilyn Seray

Reviewed on March 16, 2003

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm yum! potato salad. great write josie, cheer up

Reviewed by James David Compton (Reader)

Reviewed on March 16, 2003

Jo, you never told me you make potato salad.
.....Marry me???
-James