{"id":8969,"date":"2020-02-13T07:15:26","date_gmt":"2020-02-13T14:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=8969"},"modified":"2020-02-09T16:58:17","modified_gmt":"2020-02-09T23:58:17","slug":"listen-to-your-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/listen-to-your-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Listen To Your Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Today\u2019s guest blogger, Nancy Julien Kopp, has been published in Chicken Soup for the Soul<\/em> books 22 times! Her story:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good many years ago, I submitted to a\u00a0Chicken Soup for the Soul<\/em>\u00a0 book for the first time. The story was a simple one, a childhood memory, that I thought might work for the\u00a0Fathers and Daughters\u00a0book. Maybe.

I hesitated to send it. Why? My\u00a0pride\u00a0told me it was impossible because rejection hurts a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experience\u00a0added that I hadn’t been writing very long, and the Chicken Soup editors received hundreds, maybe even a thousand or more, submissions for each book. My chances were pretty slim.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reason\u00a0stepped in and sneered at me as it said it was pointless to submit this story. What would it matter to the rest of the world? Then they laughed and I whimpered.

All three had ganged up on me, and then a funny thing happened. My heart whispered softly in my ear.\u00a0Your story is something others can relate to. Go ahead and give it a try. You have nothing to lose\u00a0and everything to gain. I pushed pride, experience, and reason out the door. I liked what my heart told me.

I sent the story. Many months later, I received a notice that the story had made it to the finals. My heart did a happy dance. I waited a few weeks longer before learning that the story had made it into the book. What a thrill to hold the published book in my hand a few months later.

That story was “Love In A Box,” about a Valentine box my dad made for me when I was in the second grade. At age seven, I suddenly realized that my hardworking father truly loved me. That\u00a0fact came as a startling discovery, one that left a life-long impression on me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently, readers related to it and responded positively,\nso much so that the story has been published multiple times in English and some\nforeign languages.
\n
\nWhat if I hadn’t listened to my heart? What if I’d let those three bullies push\nme into a corner? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever had a project that you wanted to submit\nsomewhere but held back for one or more of the reasons above? What kept you\nfrom sending it? Were those three bullies-pride, experience and reason-invading\nyour space, too?
\n
\nDon’t let them push you around. Remind yourself that you wrote a good story or\npoem or essay and that it deserves a chance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get the submission ready, hit the Submit button and laugh at\nthe three bullies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listen to your heart. Your heart knows you better than those\nthree twerps who try to place blocks in your way.
\n
\nRemember this:  If you don’t submit, you cannot be published.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nancy Julien Kopp<\/a>\u00a0has been published in several anthologies including\u00a0The Write Spot: Possibilities<\/a><\/em>, newspapers, magazines and ezines. Her writing includes award-winning fiction for children, creative nonfiction, poetry, travel and personal essays. She was named Prose Writer of the Year in 2013 by the Kansas Authors Club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out what Chicken Soup for the Soul is currently working on.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Study the Guidelines.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Submit!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s guest blogger, Nancy Julien Kopp, has been published in Chicken Soup for the Soul books 22 times! Her story: A good many years ago, I submitted to a\u00a0Chicken Soup for the Soul\u00a0 book for the first time. The story was a simple one, a childhood memory, that I thought might work for the\u00a0Fathers and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[104],"tags":[39,1140,1265],"class_list":["post-8969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-bloggers","tag-chicken-soup-for-the-soul","tag-nancy-julien-kopp","tag-the-write-spot-possibilities"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-2kF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8969"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8974,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8969\/revisions\/8974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}