I Will Be the Greatest Author of All.

Today was the day I was going to finally become a published author. For nearly two months I slaved away at my computer typing up the perfect manuscript for my latest novel. It was full of action that would stun the audience, comedy that would have them in stitches, and romance that would make them jealous that their own lives weren’t nearly as spicy. The perfect blend of tropes for an iconic story.

I had a real winner on my hands this time! I might as well have written up a speech along with it for all the awards I’d be receiving. Did I already hear the news about an up and coming best selling author, Auri Anders? It was her time to shine!

No more living on the bare necessities. I was going to make it big, and live like a queen!

“Oh man!” I eagerly bounced in place, waiting for the PO boxes to be filled at the post office. “I can already feel it! Those publishers are going to be begging me for more.”

“Auri, did you really drag me out here to check the PO boxes again?” Asked my best friend June, who was sipping a latte. “It’s cold, and it's my day off… Let’s go see a movie or something.”

“Movie? At a time like this? No way,” I waved her off, stepping closer to the PO box while the mail man filled all of them. "I'll be the one writing movies soon enough!"

The old mail man turned around and gave me a smile under his poofy mustache. “Why, good morning, Auri.”

“Morning, Jacky!” I greeted. “Got anything for me today?”

He started sifting through the pile of mail he’d grabbed from a cart. Each slip of his finger to a new envelope made my heart race with anticipation. Finally he made a gesture and noise that seemed encouraging.

“Nope, nothing today.”

My smile sank along with my mood. I let out a disappointed sigh and slouched, letting my chin fall on top of my warm latte lid.

“Darn it…” That really struck me like a whip, because every day I came here expecting some news from any of the dozen or so publishers I sent manuscripts off to.

“I’m just kidding,” he laughed, continuing to place mail into everyone's PO boxes. “Once I get to your box, you can see what I’ve got for you.”

He had a way of humbling me by forcing me to wait for him to reach my box, but I couldn’t deny that the wait was gut wrenching. I simply took a deep breath and let my lips return to their wishful smile.

“Ahh, such a kidder!” I laughed. “Alright, I’ll wait.”

June kept checking her phone for the time, rolling her eyes at each and every five minutes on the dot. “We could literally be doing anything else… But you wanted to hang out at the post office…” June lamented, taking another sip of her drink. “Well, at least you paid for the lattes today.”

“It was my turn anyways,” I replied. “We switch off every time we go to the cafe, remember?”

Now she had a pleased little smile, which made me want to smile twice as much and share in the easygoing pleasure.

“And that’s why you're my best friend, Auri. You never try to cheat your way out of paying.”

It was better off in the long run to be honest with people and not swindle them. June was the same way with me, and as long as we both had that mentality, there was no reason for us not to be as close as twins.

I cuddled up close to her, pressing my cheek against hers.

“Uh, what are you doing?”

“Just showing my appreciation to my sister from another mister.”

“Ah, don’t ever say that again!” she laughed, but accepted my affection by pressing closer. “Alright, people’ll think we’re weird if you keep this up.”

Aside from the old guy, there wasn’t anyone else in the post office today. The cold weather and rain really made it a trek most people probably wanted to avoid.

While we were entertaining ourselves, the old guy finally reached my PO box and gave us his blessing to open it. I stuck the key in that sucker and pried out anything in there for myself.

“June!” I cheered, seeing one of the response letters from a publisher. “I got one! It’s here!”

June’s face shot with just as much excitement as me and she leaned over my shoulder to read the envelope.

“You mean, they’re going to publish your work?!” she embraced me tightly from behind and shook me side to side. “Yay!”

If only it were so simple. I had to open the envelope to discover my fate.

“Well, no… At least, I can’t tell just yet until I open this up,” I said.

“Aww… You got my hopes up…”

“Don’t lose hope just yet!” I pulled out a handy little envelope opener keychain and cut open the letter. “We’re about to see the birth of the next J.K…”

…

…

…Crap…

I stood there staring at the typed up letter that was no more than three sentences long. Even with less than a hundred words, it managed to be chocked full of disappointment and despair.

“What’s it say? What’s it say?!” June moved around me and stole the letter from my hands. “Hello Miss. A. A. Dragon-lordess…?” Auri looked at me with a confused brow raise.

“It’s a pen name…” I shrugged with a nervous smile.

“Anyways… We regret to inform you that your novel does not meet our standards and has been rejected by our staff. We hope that you’ll continue to improve and send us new manuscripts, as we always have our doors wide open to young authors…”

June looked back and forth between me and the letter, offering a remorseful face that didn’t quite make me feel much better.

“Ooh… Auri…” she said in an apologetic tone. “I’m so sorry they rejected you…”

While she was consoling me, I actually opened up another letter… This one was… Well…

I just handed it off to June and let her read it.

“Dear A. A. Dragon-lordess… You have produced the most disgraceful assortment of word rubbish I have ever had the displeasure of stabbing my eyes with…” June’s face crinkled with disgust. “Gees, does he need to be such a jerk?”

“It gets worse…” I rolled my hand for her to continue.

“You are a joke of an author, but I wouldn’t even want you writing a comedy because you’d make people laugh to death with how horrible this is. Do you want to be a murderer? Because this is the way to do it successfully. You’ll never be caught because nobody can trace this back to you.”

I honestly couldn’t even get too mad at how stupidly edgy his reply to me was, but I just felt like an absolute slug of a human being for even trying to make my dream come true.

“That’s it…” June whipped out her phone and logged into her social account. “This guy’s getting canceled!”

“No, June…” I put my hands over hers to prevent her from typing up something nasty . “Just… Just don’t…”

I needed to hear every word of how much I sucked. The feedback was harsh, but necessary. This was the most awful response I'd ever gotten, and ironically the best as well.

It just made me wish that I was naturally gifted like some of the greats. Everyone sang praises for all those timeless books. Heck, I'd settle for even being half as good as modern authors and all their flaws.

“Auri, I know that face…” June sighed, folding her arms and tilting her head slightly. “You don’t have to accept this, you know? Two letters isn’t the end of the world.

“Yeah, but these aren't the first two letters I’ve ever gotten back,” I admitted, thinking back to the last few years of getting tons of these disappointing things.

Actually, the reason I started forcing June to come along to check with me was because she helped with the crippling defeat.

“Nobody’s ever accepted my work before, and… Well, I can’t say I’ve gotten any good critiques either.”

“Oh, Auri…” June shook her head, handing me back the letters. “Did you have anyone else read your stuff? Like, why didn’t you ask me to check it out?”

There were plenty of opportunities to ask other people, especially June, since her part time job gave her a lot of free time, but honestly… “I was afraid you wouldn’t like it…”

“And there’s the problem,” June rolled her eyes and gestured to me like I was a stain on my own shirt. “You don’t have enough confidence to show other people. And if you're not confident, what makes you think a publisher would buy this?”

That just put me more in the dumps than ever. I felt like my dream was getting more distant by the second. It was a race with an ever moving finish line, but I’d stumbled and fallen, scraping my knee on the asphalt.

“Yeah, I’m pathetic…”

“I… I didn’t mean it like that…” June apologized. “I’m just saying that your pencil doesn't just make diamonds, alright? You need to give that stuff time and pressure to form. That means asking others to look it over.”

After the last few minutes of sulking in the ruins of my titanic defeat, I finally felt a sliver of hope that maybe I still had a wave to ride to the shores of my dream.

“You’re right!” I said, pumping my fist in the air. “I won’t be defeated this easily! I’ll become the greatest writer ever, and I’ll do it with your help!”

“That’s the spirit!” June joined in on my excitement as we both clashed fists mid air. “Let's do this, Auri!”

-(*.*)-