The Rejection Spike

So, my good friend Olivia once got the coolest writing present ever. Her grandfather (I believe) made her something called a rejection spike. It was the first one I’ve ever seen and if you do a google image search, it’s the only one that comes up. Well, mine might come up now, you never know. Anyways, when I started my submission process, she recommended making one so every time I got a rejection, I could print them off and drive them through on the spike. I thought about what I would want to make mine out of. Olivia’s is made from a plank of wood and a railroad spike. Wexford, being the great metropolis it is, doesn’t have railroad spikes just laying around, besides, that one’s Olivia’s. That night I was talking to the man creature and he recommended I try this catch-all shop in town. I was headed into the library and would pass by it anyway, so I popped in. I had to dig to the bottom of a crate of old, dirty, rusted garden tools (thankfully, I have an updated tetanus shot), but I found this long, thin file with the perfect point at the top. Even better? The woman sold it to me for a whole euro.

Next, I needed a base. It needed to be quite thick since the file is solid metal and heavy. Enter Irish charity shops. They always have books there and books can be quite thick. I thought, why not? Then perfection happened. They had a copy of Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer. Now, anyone who knows me knows I’m not a fan. I’m not one of the rabid anti-fans, but I never thought I would buy one of her books. Well, I did. I just also happened to drive a metal spike through it. I figure it can serve as a reminder that if Twilight can get published, so can I.

The supplies

First, I had to clean the file with a wire brush. It was pretty dirty, so it took a while.

And as it happens, Netflix had just recently added Gilmore Girls. I never really watched it when I was younger, so I figured “Why not?”. I nearly lost it when baby Sam Winchester popped up, calling himself Dean. 

It took a while and I lost a few layers of skin on my hands since, you know, it IS a file and I had no drill.

The finished product on my desk with four rejections. And let me tell you, driving the rejections through is SO satisfying!