I got lots of e-mail this weekend in my personal mailbox. Lots for me, anyway. I’m used to a message a day – the automated job search from monster.com that I should really turn off because I found a job, but leave on because what if they don’t hire me when my contract is up? Not that I ever read the messages – they go straight to the trash every morning.
One of the messages was rejection – boo. It was from a place that has a very low acceptance rate, so it didn’t hurt too much. But it was on a story that I really love and has been rejected…six times now I think. It’s a more subtle piece. The people who don’t ‘get it’ think it’s too obvious. The people who do, love it the way I love it. I’m not usually so stubborn with my stories, but this is one that there are certain changes I just won’t make. If that means that it never sees the published light of day, then that will be the way it is.
These are the things I tell myself to make rejections hurt a little less 😉 When I can’t make justifications like the above, they sting a lot more. Even if I don’t like the piece all that much.
Most of the others were from the editor of Skive Magazine. My correspondence with him has been brief, but all of it pleasant – he’s been a really nice guy to work with. Most of the messages were things like “The magazine is now available” and “this is what else I’m doing to promote your work and my magazine.” He’s working really hard to get the name out there, and I respect that. And yes, I would still respect it, even if my story wasn’t in the latest issue.
Speaking of – that was one of the e-mails. The sample PDF (follow the link above, there’s a link to a sample PDF on the page) has the first page of a handful of the stories from this issue. You’ll see mine in there – “Daybreak” by Loralie Hall. I made the promo PDF! 😀
And that is the only reason I came up with this long rambling post. But I think it’s a great reason.