“I trashed my submission, 'How to Catch the Lost Ones', because I thought the story isn't capturing the idea I'd envisaged. The initial writing was a beautiful process. I could feel it all: the passion, the depth, everything. Then, I left the work after writing and came back to revise. But I wouldn't find it any appealing. It read boring, off, grey. But I read the same work recently and happened to like it again.”

“I first wrote this piece about 8 years ago, and over the following years I workshopped it with several groups. I subsequently submitted it to some literary journals but it was always rejected. After this, I put it to one side and forgot about it. I came across Trash to Treasure and thought it a wonderful concept for a literary space, and so I dusted off this story and decided I would give it one last shot.”

“This story is actually the beginning of a novel I’ve been working on since 2016. I’m unhappy with the novel in general and I’ve been struggling with what to do with it. I think the beginning is pretty strong, though, and I’ve submitted it to a few publications. One publication actually picked it up to publish but then went dark before that could happen. “

“I wrote the Careless Queen at the beginning of June and spent the whole summer submitting it… It got rejected so many times, I decided I was done trying…even though it is one of my favorite short stories! I decided to submit it to Trash to Treasure Lit as a last attempt to get it out there before retiring it permanently.”