07.25.2008
Just a quick note. Rejection number fifty-two is in from Fantasy & Science-Fiction saying no to They Who Cast The First Stone. Was I hoping they'd like it? Of course. Was I surprised they didn't? No.
I sent Was I hoping they'd like it? Of course. I sent First Stone to them in part because I hadn't been rejected in a long time. But I always hope they'll buy it. I don't purposely send crap. And what with the new rewrite of First Stone, I felt that I had a pretty decent chance. I mean, it's only thirty-nine hundred words, so I figure it's not exactly a big risk to any publisher. But who knows what their selection process is like.
What I'm really impressed with is that I sent it out last Saturday and the rejection was postmarked on just four days later. Four days! Now that's turn around time, people. But what's really interesting is that this still wasn't the fastest rejection I've ever had for this piece. Apex Digest rejected it in a single day and Ideomancer only took three. Of course, that was the old version which was crap and deserved quick rejections, but still...
This does make rejection number six for First Stone as a story, whatever the revision number. F&SF has now rejected me five times, putting it tied for fourth with Asimov's for the place that's rejected me most.
For those that are curious, Strange Horizons has the honor of being in first with nine rejections, Abyss & Apex is in second with eight, and Orson Scott Card's IGMS is in third with six.
I know this looks like a massive lead but F&SF is a serious contender for number one. Strange Horizons takes over a month to return a no and has seen most of the stories I feel comfortable sending out. Abyss & Apex is only open to submissions four times a year and IGMS takes three months to reply. Given this and F&SF's stellar average response time of five days, I'd say that by the end of the year I'll have been rejected by the fine folks in Hoboken more than any other or at least tied for the honor.
Pretty neat, yeah?
In other news, I've begun revising my story You're Never Too Far From Gelassenheit. It was already quite long at over nine thousand words. Well... when I started my revisions, it quickly became clear that it was going to turn into a novella. Five days later, it's now looking like a novel. How? Well, I haven't even gotten the main character off the planet yet and it's almost ten thousand words long (or forty-four pages for those of you who don't gauge length by word count).
A novel is typically anywhere between sixty and a hundred thousand words, just FYI.
So I'm making gangbuster progress on it. But we'll see how she does. So far, so good though.
And that's it. I'm off to see The X-Files with my buddy Mark. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I fucking love The X-Files. Or, you know, I did before they fucked it up.
Cheers, kids.