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all content copyright 2003
Slow Sand Writers Society
or individual authors
email:
info@slowsand.com
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 Kathy Hayes
Kathy Hayes is a writer and editor whose essays and short fiction have been published in a number of literary and commercial magazines. Her story "The Restoration" was a finalist for the Raymond Carver Short Story Award.
Publications
- “Jump,” Louisville Review, creative nonfiction 2005
- “The Persistence of Home,” The MacGuffin, creative nonfiction 2003
- "Two Doors," Colorado Review, creative nonfiction 2001/2002
- "Being Here," Pilgrimage, creative nonfiction 2001
- "The Restoration," Carve Magazine, short fiction 2001
- "Letter to Jesse, Ruler of the Universe," toowrite.com, creative nonfiction
- "Punch Line," The Sun, creative nonfiction 2000
Comments/Advice/Maxims
When an editor rejects your work, don't jump to the conclusion that your work is unworthy of publication. Every editor has different literary tastes. And, just like the rest of us, work and family matters, mood, frame of mind, and other factors affect the decisions they make each day. Instead of feeling rejected:
- Consider it an apology letter rather than a rejection letter. After all, editors often “regret” or are “sorry” that they’re unable to use your work at this time.
- Notice anything encouraging in the rejection letter. If you find something like, "This story's not for us, but yours is a unique voice we'd like to hear more of," prepare another piece and send it to the same place.
- Strongly consider any suggestions or questions the editor gave. Look at your story again. Given the new information, decide if any parts of your story need to be clarified or more developed, then do it.
- If you receive a stock rejection form with no personal comments, add it to your stack of other rejections. See how many you can collect in a year. Realize that the more rejections you receive, the greater your chances of getting published.
- Have envelopes and cover letters prepared for the next magazine(s) you plan to submit your story to. As soon as a rejection letter arrives, send the story out again.
Contact info
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Excerpt from the personal essay “Being Here” (previously published in Pilgrimage)
At 5:30 a.m., a fire crackles in the fireplace, a hound sprawls on the carpet in front of the fire, a long-haired tabby reclines on the bottom stair facing away from the dog, my husband hunches over work papers, and I sit cross-legged on the sofa doing my morning reading. Today it’s ten pages from Natalie Goldberg’s Long Quiet Highway. She tells me about getting in touch with my breath, closing my eyes and feeling the breath go in through my nose and out through my nose. Goldberg is studying Zen Buddhism. She's trying simply to be here, to feel the exhilaration of being at the place where you can watch your thoughts arise, what she calls the “real grit of your mind.”
I, too, want to be in that unfettered place. So this morning I will meditate and start training myself to let go, to quiet my mind.
But now it’s 6:30, and Jim is leaving for work, and our teenage boys need to be awakened. I slip into their rooms and, at that moment, nothing else in the world exists except their perfectly still faces - faces from their childhood. I breathe in deeply and exhale, then gently nudge them to consciousness.
While they groom themselves, I peel four oranges, inhale the aroma of citrus, and push the orange sections through the juicer.
The gentlemen come downstairs with moussed hair and the fragrance of Cool Water, wearing logo t-shirts and oversized jeans. The sun is out on this February morning and the wind has subsided, and Jesse looks spring-like in his baggy jean shorts, which fall below his knees. He’s in a good mood and comments on how the cat keeps her back to the dog. The cat refuses to acknowledge the dog. Yet if she should inadvertently glance in the dog’s direction, the dog immediately starts thumping her fat tail. The dog is jubilant for any kind of attention, even an accidental glance, and it occurs to me how powerful the simple act of giving attention can be.
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