Magical Musings had a post a few days ago about Feng Shui and New Year’s. The post basically talks about getting rid of all the crap you don’t need anymore and making sure everything in your house is in good working order. Feeling all inspired and needing to do it anyway, I decided to systematically go through my house and get rid of everything I hadn’t used in the last six months.

The crap. Oh, the crap.

I never really considered myself to be a pack rat, but since I started cleaning, I bet I’ve thrown out at least a dozen trash bags of old report cards, school papers, newspapers, magazines, and general debris. Not to mention all the clothes I’ve taken to Goodwill and the old VHS movies I donated to my local library. And I’m not done yet.

Among the more interesting items I’ve rediscovered during my cleaning frenzy are rejection letters I’ve gotten over the years. I had a big blue binder full of them. It was kind of funny and depressing to go through the letters and see all the ways a writer can be rejected — and realize just how many times I had been. (I lost count after about 200.)

Form letters, form notecards, handwritten scrawls that read Thanks, but no thanks. I’ve gotten them all. One rejection letter from an editor said she/he was passing on my book because the heroine was a journalist. That’s it. That was the only reason she/he gave. Perhaps if my heroine been a chef or something else, she/he would have bought it. Maybe the most succinct and depressing rejection was this one: I just didn’t like it enough.

Okey-dokey.

Some authors keep all their rejection letters. Not me. They went in the garbage, with everything else. I’m Feng Shui-ing my house and life, and I figure it’s good to get rid of as much negativity as possible, including rejection letters. 😉

I did keep a few of the letters, mainly for motivational purposes and to remind myself how hard I’ve worked to be published. Among the keepers? The three rejection letters I got from the agency that now represents me.

What about you? Are you cleaning house in the New Year? What will you keep? What will you throw away?