This summer, after a kind rejection from an agent, my first very healthy reaction was, "You did it, Queen! You dared! You put something out there! Now you have the distinction, like so many great authors before you, of being rejected. I am so proud of your bravery!"  

Then the gremlin who lives in my head and has all my old negative tapes on a play list, removed the ear buds and cranked the volume. "Ooh!," she sneered. "'Who Do You Think You Are? Jane Austen?' - this is one of my favorites!" After a few minutes of bad dancing and out-of-tune singing, Gremlin dredged up another golden oldie.  She smirked, beat time with her smelly green sausage fingers, and launched into a screeching rendition of "You Started Too Late." Gremlin partied on until she had me where she wanted me: demoralized, humiliated, and a little weepy. (I snapped out of it, eventually. I am generally a glass-half-full Queen.) 

I don't know if it's possible to evict the gremlin and erase the tapes. But I had to go deeper to face the fears and insecurities. I at least wanted to develop some soul-tethered rebuttals to use next time. And just as I embarked on this work, my husband handed me a copy of Embrace Your Weird: Face Your Fears and Unleash Creativity, by Felicia Day. Day is a best-selling author *, actor, and producer. (She also named her daughter Calliope. Felicia Day is cool. )

Friends, if you too have recurring gremlin issues, I highly recommend you stop everything and get your ink-stained hands on this gem. It is part self-help book, part art journal. Imagine sitting around, drinking wine, with a wise, geeky friend who loves you to pieces and speaks the truth you need because she's lived it. That's Embrace Your Weird. The book is honest, light-hearted, and full of gold nuggets of wisdom. Fifteen pages in, I already know this book will be one of my best friends. 

* You're Never Weird on the Internet, Almost