There's battle lines being drawn.
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong.
Young people speaking their minds
getting so much resistance from behind

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Rejection from Oz

Rag-a-Bag has been at Andromeda Spaceways for longer than the three months they asked for. I did have high hopes, but I just received the best-est rejection email ever from Robbie Matthews. Robbie said that they liked it, but just hadn't been able to find a place for it. Fair cop. They didn't want to keep holding onto it and so they "have to very reluctantly let this one go." Excellent rejection letter, and I sent an email thanking Robbie for it.

So now it's off to Abyss and Apex who have also been very excellent to me. After all, I drank their hooch at World Fantasy.

When people ask me where I'm at being a writer, I tell them that I now collect the nicest rejection letters.

Also, today has been spent rereading Sean and the Moon. There's been some nit-picky edits, but I'm pretty please with it so far. I've been going through my loose note pages to make sure all the ideas have made it in. I need to retype the sex scene and make it more like some notes on scrap paper I have, and then work it to a finish. There's very little tension in the story. Most of it so far is between Zeke (aka Sean) and his Dad and the confusion Zeke has as he figures out "the little red hair girl" Cynthia is also the Moon. I'm not sure that's enough, and it feels vignette-y, but we'll see what happens. Right now I feel very rusty.

5 comments:

Nathan said...

"When people ask me where I'm at being a writer, I tell them that I now collect the nicest rejection letters."

That got a belly laugh from me. When I'm out scouting, I run into a lot of rejection (not surprising that various kinds of businesses don't want to shut down for a day to host a film shoot). 99.9% of the time, I'm extremely polite and thank them for their time before leaving. Who knows? maybe they'll let in the next guy.

I have the distinct memory of one day getting rejected at law firm after law firm without coming up with one possible shooting location. Late in the day some snippy receptionist said, "We're a Law Firm, not a movie studio," while looking as far down her nose at me as humanly possible.

I gave myself permission to say, "I've been kicked out of much nicer places than this dump 20 times today."

If I ever start submitting, I'll keep the nice ones.

mattw said...

I too just received a nice rejection letter from Robbie at ASIM. Nicest rejection letter I've ever received. Although, I've only received a handful since I've only submitted a handful of things. Sounds like they held onto your story a little longer than mine (I wasn't in round three as long) Too bad and better luck next time.

Steve Buchheit said...

Nathan, Ha! That kind of line has been coming to me a lot lately. Like, "I've been in dives nicer than this." And savor the nice ones. Other than good peer reviews, they're the best inspiration until those acceptance letters come it (please, soon).

Matt, yeah, Robbie gives good rejection. I think in total it was there four and a half months (I'd have to check my email at home to be sure). If you've made it past the first round, I think that means we're doing good. Good luck to you as well.

Camille Alexa said...

A whole lot of us writer-types got the same sweet rejection this week while they caught up on their backlogged hold pile over at ASIM. I hope the other story of mine they've got in there fares better, though I had higher hopes for this poem.

Steve Buchheit said...

Camille, aw, I was hoping Matt and I were special. Now I guess not so much. :) Oh, wait, it's because all three of us are so special (it's my delusion, and I'm stickin' to it).

Good luck with that story. I always like reading more from my favorite littlebird.