Elizabeth Gonzalez James
Mona at Sea
(Comedic fiction, June, Santa Fe Writer’s Project)
“After losing her job on Wall Street in the middle of the Great Recession, Mona Mireles must figure out what she finds meaningful in life … and then gain the courage to go after it.”
Oakland, Calif. I went through my own period of unemployment during the Great Recession, and I started writing as a way to exorcize my worst feelings. When I started , I’d never written anything, and drafting the novel was me teaching myself how to tell a story. I’ve had stories and essays published in , , , and elsewhere. I am also a contributor to the blog. I started writing [the book] in 2011 while I was raising my infant daughter. I sent it to agents in 2015 and signed with an went into a drawer. Mostly. I still sent it out to small presses and it was named a finalist in the SFWP Literary Awards. SFWP offered me a contract, and two years later, it’s finally out in the world. I do not have an agent, and I was able to find my publisher through their book contest. But I am seeking representation for my second book. My book was rejected by more than 40 publishers. And guess what? The sun still came up the next day, I got back on my laptop, and started writing another book. I learned that I can fail and still have the strength to try again. I read that article that went viral a few years ago about shooting for 100 rejections a year, and I started submitting every-thing, everywhere. Because I already failed on a grand scale, tiny failures like getting a story rejected don’t hurt as much. In 2020, I was getting about one rejection every four days. Never giving up and keeping my expectations low helped me enormously. I made rookie mistakes in structuring the novel in early drafts because I didn’t understand how to tell a story. I wish I had a clearer idea of the architecture of a novel, how to build around theme while continuing to raise stakes. I attended three writing workshops—Bread Loaf, Tin House, and Lit Camp—and found community at all three. It’s been a pleasure to watch my fellow workshop attendees publish their books and get boosted by the other alums. Trying to be more empathetic has made me a better writer and human. I follow George Saunders’ example. He asks his characters, “Can you tell me something about yourself that would make me love you better?” I have a second novel I am revising. It’s a magical realism Western about my great-grandfather, who was a .
