Lucky Number 7

Today, I received my 7th rejection letter for 11:34. I took a moment to reflect on that. Until now, I've been pretty upbeat about this whole process, waiting for that one agent who asks for the whole manuscript. I'm not sure why this one turned into such a downer.

Maybe it just caught me at the wrong time. I'm wrapping up a 2-week stint of being on-call for my company. It's not easy taking those calls especially after entering the throes of slumber as was the case last night. I have a hard time sleeping as it is, and I was unable to fall asleep until after 2 in the morning. Aside from being a rubbery, exhausted blob, the weather is just downright miserable. The Midwest is feeling the effects of one of those once-in-a generation polar vortexes. Our temps are expected to be around -30 with a -60 wind chill. This is one of those phenomena when the temp in your backyard may actually be colder than the North Pole. Oh yeah, the handle to one of doors in my house came apart when my daughter tried to open the door. All of that preceded my seventh rejection letter. Alert the committee! Hire a DJ! Chill the brewskis! The pity party is going to be epic!

Lucky number 7, so they say.

What so great about it anyway? So I did a bit of research and here is what I came up with.

There are 7 continents on our planet. There are 7 deadly sins. There are (were) 7 Wonders of the World. There are 7 days of the week, the 7th being the Sabbath for Christians. In Judaism, there are 7 heavens. In Chinese culture, the 5 elements of life combined with Yin and Yang represent 7, a harmonic concept for Confucianism. There are 7 colors in a rainbow.

A friend of mine, who is an author, told me that his first book was accepted on its 8th query submission. He, too, received 7 rejection letters up to that point. For the record, most authors typically receive many, many more rejection letters. The same author told me his second book was accepted after 50 query letters (7 x 7 rejections?).

Whether we are conscience of it or not, we see the number 7 all the time. Maybe on some level I expected the 7th response to be the Lucky One.

Like my author friend, maybe, just maybe, this rejection was my Lucky Number 7. Maybe it takes 8 to be Great.