Two Cups of Tea

Any cafe with a well-stocked bookcase of used books for sale is the cafe for me.
I've been looking for a new "writing getaway" and although the Sunset Cafe opened last June on the corner of Main and Water in downtown Oxford, I didn't have a chance to check it out until this past week.
What I love about this place, and why I took a photo of the napkin dispenser, is that it is a "social enterprise" business, which means its focus is social rather than economic. The cafe is part of a thrift shop and a laundromat, all at the same location, run by the Sunset Community (an adult residential facility) located in Pugwash. I'm delighted to support this business, and I'm sorry it took me so long.

A table for two by the window, please and thank you.
And two mugs of delicious green tea later, I had the draft of a children's story rewritten. I have three children's books projects to work on this winter so if I spend one afternoon a week at the cafe, I should have no problem getting them ready for submission.

It's been a rocky start to the new year on that front -- the publishing front. With three books on submission, there's always an underlying thrum of anticipation and hope -- all the while dreading rejection. I've not heard back on any of those books, and so it's not like the year has started with rejection; it just hasn't started with acceptance, either!
It's never been an easy industry and now it's just seems...impossible. Yet writing is what I do best, and it's what I've worked hardest to master. But I'm running up against the reality of being a working writer in Canada: you simply can't support yourself writing full-time, particularly if you're publishing books.
In the just the last month, I've learned that three established authors are struggling to get their novels published -- and one of the books is the third in a series. I really liked the first two books; why can't she get the third book published?
So that's been very discouraging. And the only way I know how to deal with fear and anxiety and flat out panic... is to keep working. It doesn't make the fear and anxiety and panic go away but at least I get a couple of hours' break from it.
I'm not crying into my teapot here; it's just the way publishing is. That's why I'm trying several different genres; whatever idea pops into my head, if it's strong enough -- and I know what a "real" idea feels like now -- I will work on it.
In the meantime, I'm doing my other work as a lay worship leader and a substitute teacher -- and taking it one page, one book, one mug of tea at a time.