A side note.
The horse story will resume another day.
For now, there is this.
I am a writer, though you may question that fact almost as much as I do. For I’m taken to believe that a writer without a publisher is not really a writer at all. Then what am I? Trying. Too hard at times. Willing to change my voice for the approval of others. Sing a song to please you, so to say. So tired of rejection and getting nowhere and being asked to be patient and trust when truth is it is my self I do not trust, my talents, my abilities.
However hurt and down this gets me, quiet, soft spoken and demure I will not be. I get mad. I suppose anger has its proper place. If not suppressed, it can be a call to action. Then how shall I act now? What shall I do?
In response to yet another rejection from a publication I’m not even impressed with, an editor who pointed me in the direction of work he personally liked and suggested I try to sound more like someone else, I wrote the following.
Tell me who I am
What to wear
The words to whisper in your ear
Does this dress become me
I ask
As I coyly dance before you
On my knees
Where you want me
Where I’ll never be
And then it is over
Last I looked you smugly smiled
And then you smiled no more
Now I hear only the evening wind
A familiar soothing sound
Wind chimes drowning out your banter
Cutting through your shallowness
Calling me closer to where I was
Before I ever tried
Gin Getz 
There is only one YOU .Never try to change to be someone else .The world is full of clones or clowns depending on how you look at them .I like your writings and pictures coming from you . How you see things and what YOU have to say .Be a original not a copy .Dont give up . Nothing worthwhile comes easy .A lot of the greatest people in history were not recognized until late in life . Lets all hope it dose not take that long for you .If it does it does but people will remember you forever .I have always said if after I’m gone all I want is for people to say he was a good person and did his work well we miss him .If nothing else your writings and photos wil last forever .People will say who was that lady she was a wonderful writer and photo artist .We hope you will get your do a lot sooner than later .Never give up !!!! YOUR FAITHFUL FRIEND DON
Oh Don, you are awesome! Thanks so much for the well needed encouragement. I was just steaming away while cleaning cabins (my back up profession) and thinking about this editor. Criticism is part of the course. I can handle that (usually). And one should be able to learn from everyone (if even what NOT to do). But telling one writer to sound more like another… I don’t think that’s right, and even if it was, I won’t do it! What we need to do as writers is learn to sound more like ourselves – find what makes us most unique and stick with it, develop it, become more, perhaps, but not less. Unless we just want to plug in the words for numbers, follow the formula, and sell out. I’d rather stick with cleaning cabins if that was the case.
Right on, write on, sister!
Miss you! I feel the tingle of a road trip in the air… and the hankering to convert you to cowgirl.
Be true to yourself, Gin..your writing is wonderful to its readers and it comes from your heart and soul. That being said, though, someday when you get that big Hollywood movie deal maybe you could make an exception! (I hear that’s how they roll) :>) Dream big!