There are a lot of monsters in the world, and tiny badger isn’t afraid of any of them. Yes, perhaps he has an overinflated ego, but at least he doesn’t quit. His teeth are sharp and his brain is sharper. He charges at publishing conglomerates and book critics. He leaps onto their desks and bares his teeth. He lobs their rubber stamps at their heads. He spits on their SASE. And he shouts at the top of his tiny badger lungs, “You will not smother me in your slush pile! You will not trick me into quitting with your silences! You will not drive me to cut my wrists with your form rejection letters!”

So, tiny badger is a bit testy. He’s been dragging out his manuscript and scribbling at the pages that are twice as big as he is, and he certainly isn’t getting the love he knows he deserves. He’s dreaming of taking his tiny badger clan and gathering up all the tiny badger villages and, well, he doesn’t want to give away his plans just yet, but he is wondering if publishers’ ankles taste better before or after lunch.

You are his back up plan. That’s right. If his crazed assault on, let’s say, Random House, fails, if he rushes in only to come out with Not for us at this time branded into his tiny badger fur and a ballpoint pen through his tiny badger heart, you’ve got to keep up the good fight. Keep typing. Keep writing.

If you keep writing, tiny badger will yank the pen from his chest, wave it in their faces, and laugh, his sharp teeth gleaming in the computer monitor light. If you keep writing, he will live to badger another day. The more you write, the stronger he is. Make him invincible.

Go write.