Good grief, it's already Wednesday, and i haven't written about ANYTHING yet. Nothing about the wonderful time i seem to remember having at the
Meow Mix on Saturday, or the bitter wind that attacked me on the way to work yesterday, or the intense feeling of failure that came with my latest rejection letter. So of course, having mentioned that, i am going to talk about that and nothing but that.
I can deal with rejection, believe it or not. But why do they always take so long to reject stories? Yeah, yeah, i know - the longer they take, the more seriously they're judging your work. To be honest, i don't care. If it gets rejected, it gets rejected, and having been seriously considered doesn't change it at all. I waited for four (4) - count'em, four - months to hear, "sorry, we're not interested, and our policy is that we never tell you why we're not interested, so basically you've waited four months and have a little photocopied rejection note to show for it." You know what? If they had made one comment about why, i would feel infinitely better. (I can hear you in the back row there, saying you know the reason why, and don't think i'm not taking names).
As it is, it's just like anonymous downvoting. No explanation, just "you sucked".
Fuck it. I sent the story out to another magazine the next day. This time, i picked a magazine with vision, with an understanding of art, with the balls to publish edgy stuff. I picked a magazine nobody ever heard of. Hey, i'm sure their money is just as green as our New Jersey dollars.