Hello and welcome to my February IWSG post. IWSG, or the insecure writer’s support group, is a monthly meet up where insecure writers all over the world can share their thoughts and encourage each other. Click here to check out the many other writers participating.

This month’s IWSG question asked us if there were any images that inspired us and hoo boy I have so many folders of images that whisper stories into my subconscious, but one does stand out. I’ll share it as the screenshot I took of it when I first found it, which isn’t pretty enough for stealing, and please click hereto check out Paolo Cirmia’s other work if you like this image.

When I first saw this picture, it shot a story directly into my imagination. This story ended up being fairly significant because it was the first story where I entered the realm of space fantasy, which is slowly becoming more and more ‘my thing.’ The story I wrote did very well in a handful of contests, being both a finalist in one and placing in another. It nabbed a bit of feedback that thrilled me to my toes and I printed off and tucked inside my “anti-discouragement files” for bad days. And I LOVE this story. I can’t explain why it means so much to me, beyond the world it opened up in my imagination, but it does. It hasn’t found its home yet, and remains unpublished, gathering almost twenty rejections thus far. Sometimes I think I should give up on it but then I read it over and fall in love with it again. Some day I’ll find the right market for it, and until then when it receives a new rejection I remember the advice from Richard Thomas

and I dust it off and send it out again.

Happy IWSG day everybody! I can’t wait to check out your posts.