"We regret to inform you..."

My literary agent terminated our contract—doesn't think my new manuscript will sell. Excerpts from the manuscript are getting rejected from magazines. Should I bother finishing my second book?

I’ve been working on my second book for almost five years now, and it’s not going so well. I still believe in it, I think, but the gatekeepers don’t seem to. “Rejection is protection,” my friend Ash Jansen says. I believe her on my good days. On my bad days, I tend to believe other things that tend to make me feel like shit.

I guess you’re supposed to r…