Rejection Recovery Playlist

I love putting together playlists for projects, but also for inspiration and encouragement. I've shared a few on my personal blog, but I thought it was time I shared some here. This is my Get Back Up playlist for use after rejections, bad reviews, harsh critiques, and anything else you need encouragement for. This is a varied mix of mellow sounds and dance music, including David Bowie, Imagine Dragons, and PSY. There are a couple geeky fanvids in there too (such as Farscape and Doctor Who). I hope you like it!

What are your favorite feel good songs?

A Blast From The OA Blog Past: The Doctor Who Stages of Rejection

Two of my favourite shows have returned to TV over the last few days:

1) Game of Thrones.
2) Doctor Who.

Since my brain exploded from the awesome, I popped into the Operation Awesome Tardis and found this little Doctor Who inspired post to, hopefully, bring you some Wednesday smiles.

The waiting is over. An email sits in your inbox holding a thousand promises:

You open it and read:

 

Was that a rejection? You read it again:

And the sadness rains down on you:

The hurt kicks in:

But you don't quit.

Rejection is part of the process.

No. You send out the next query:

 

Because next time it might be something that makes you do this:

Never give up.

The Lonely Hero a la Dr. Who

Doctor Who (pic from this site)

Lindsay's Dr. Who pictures in her Stages of Rejection post inspired me to watch the show, if only to find out why there appeared to be two different Doctors, three if you count the one I saw in a random episode I caught last year. So now I'm on Season 3 and one main characterization of the Doctor has my mind ruminating:


The Lonely Hero


We see this everywhere in literature, and I think it's something to which we can all relate because at some point in our lives, we have been or will all be alone. Frodo alone must carry the ring. Though he has helpers, nobody else understands what he's dealing with except Gollum, who's not really reliable since he'd kill his best friend for the ring. Harry Potter is lonely from the very beginning. He has moments of friendship that are crucial to his development, but when it comes down to his hero arc, he is basically alone - the only person who understands what it's like to be connected to the Dark Lord through the painful scar on his head.


Back to Dr. Who. He's the last of the Time Lords. His planet is destroyed. It's hard to say what drives him forward other than a will to survive and his personal code which seems to be protect and defend the helpless at all costs. We come to find out he keeps traveling companions as he ventures through time and space, solving the problems and hiccups in the universe temporal stream. The problem is that his companions are more, well, mortal than he is. They age, they die, they crave their families. And none of them can really understand him. He is alone. Always. And I think both the actors playing Doctor Who, whom I have seen thus far, convey that tragically. 

Pic from this site

These pics from this site

The episode I watched last night (at 1am) really broke my heart. Doctor Who was just hanging out in Depression era New York when he spotted his arch nemeses, the Dalek, who are responsible for his entire species dying, except for him. He stares after the Dalek once it has safely passed (because they're terrifying creatures with no emotion) and with fierce and deep pain, he seethes, "They survived. They survive while I lose everything!" And because we've seen what he's lost, we cry for him. 


The Lonely Hero. 


I want to know, Who's your favorite lonely hero? 


And this one's just for you to think about: In what way can you make your own main character the lonely hero?




Now for three giveaways for books and critiques I don't want you to miss if I can possibly help it!

• Have you entered Afterglow's Beginning of Summer Giveaway yet? It's easy to throw your name in the hat for a chance to win a free book! We're giving TEN books away. Click here!

• Operation Awesome's June Giveaway

The prizes:

Amparo: A query critique.Angie: First five pages.Lindsay: A query critique.Michelle: First chapter or query critique (winner's choice)Katrina: First ten pages or query critique (winner's choice)Kristal: First chapter critique.
Enter here.

•  My own 1,000 twitter followers thank you giveaway. Come enter to win Goodnight Tweetheart by Teresa Medeiros.