Best of Luck with This

I got my first rejection letter! Woho.

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Dear Justin Hicks, 

Thank you for sending us "Nowhere in Particular". We appreciate the chance to read it. Unfortunately, the piece is not for us. 

Thanks again. Best of luck with this.

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I don't know. It's kind of fun. It feels good. I know it won't feel this way going forward, but this one specifically makes sense, I think. Reminds me that I'm trying to do this. That I am an active agent in the pursuit of my dreams. I'm sure I'll be getting more of these, and they'll be with pieces that I want very bad to not get rejected. But, I guess at this point, I'm looking forward to that. When that happens, I will have something that I want to have published. Having something like that completed will feel good.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug was pretty great. Not at all disappointed with it. Glad to be seeing it again here in the coming weeks.

I've got all of my gift shopping done except for two people. I've found that shopping for people based on your relationship or what you know about them is a lot more fun than shopping for people based on what they need or want. It makes the whole procedure feel like an action based on relationship rather than time of the year or necessity.