01.06.2008
The first rejection of the new year is in, and it's from Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. Yes, sir. That respectable, fun, and clever little Aussie rag told me no to Dutch after a stunning 103 days.
Now... 103 days is quite a long time. In fact, it beat IGMS for the longest such submission time because they asked to put my story into their hold queue for potential publication. That, of course, is an awesome thing. They hold those stories for three months, letting their editors decide whether to use it and, if no selection is made in three months, release it back to the author.
They say that 1/3rd of the stories that make it to the hold queue are published, which I know means only 33% but that's a far sight better odds than when it entered their slush pile, right?
Anyway, I like their magazine and hope that since they liked Dutch so much, they might be fond of some of my other works. You never can tell.
They provided a little piece of feedback also:
There is perhaps 'son of a bitch' overload in here? This might be deliberate, but so many times it should perhaps be funnier in the middle?
Heh heh... I should go back and re-read it again to see if I am actually overusing one of my all time favorite curses...
Strangely, this marks only the first rejection for Dutch. I wrote it on New Years Eve in the year six but held it back myself for a long time because, like so many of my stories, I wasn't sure it was sci-fi enough to qualify in a sci-fi market but I know for a fact that it's too sci-fi for a non-sci-fi market. (Who makes these stupid fucking rules anyway?) I took a shot with ASIM because they seem fun and generally willing to give the benefit of the doubt. Which they were. Yeah...
So.. that's the latest. And I'm now up to thirty-five.
On the downside, I have no more stories out right now. So I need to get my act together and start figuring out what to put in the mail, what to fire off in email, and what might need a second look before either.
Cheers, kids.