08.28.2007
Abyss & Apex said no again after 21 days to my story Environments.
This is getting crazy. This makes seven rejections from them alone.
As I've said previously, I always thought I had a good shot of getting published with them. But now I'm starting to think otherwise.
Environments is a little story I wrote about an environmentalist that belongs to a fictional little organization called "RAGE" - which means something but I don't feel like looking at my notes right now. The basic idea is that with the discovery of new planets, the environmental movement has split into three basic groups: those that don't want to lose focus on protecting Earth, those that don't want to pollute these new worlds, and those that are somewhere in between. The main character was in the third group.
The conflict in the story is when her friend goes into the second group but extreme. He begins blowing up colony ships. Then the story boils down to become something of a foxhunt story as the FBI forces the main character into helping them track her down. Yadda yadda yadda...
To set it up, I started with an argument between the three main characters discussing the split. In my rejection I got this:
Opening with an argument doesn't make characters sympathetic, especially when the opening scene is about political issues. I don't think most people enjoy coming into the middle of an argument, which is how this piece opens.
Hmmm... So how should I start it? Especially when the underlying conflict is political?
This also comes on the heels of the rejection I got for The Three Lives of Slugger Joe that said:
I am not into sports stories.
Sure, the main character was a baseball player but it wasn't exactly a Sports Illustrated story.
So... they don't like politics and they don't like sports... What kind of story would they like? Cooking? Botany? I don't know...
Anyway... There you have it.