Weekend Note

A fairly kind, personalized rejection arrived in my inbox yesterday. It reads:

Thank you for your submission, which is very close to the sort of stories we are looking for. It is an unusual method of telling a story, from a unique angle. However, in the end we felt it doesn't quite transcend itself. It doesn't quite make a riveting story, as is. My suggestion (if the piece happens to be "untrue") would be to maintain the professional sounding voice while making the items in your sub-clauses more and more ludicrous, as a way of satirizing the mundane. It's not right for Storyscape, but we wish you the best of luck in placing your piece.

It is really a nice note, the advice is good. Except that the piece she is referring to is true. It is a true story of growing up in the home that I sold 3 years ago. Ah well. Back to the drawing board.

Tuesday

Today I received two rejections. One for an essay sent to Conte, an online lit journal.

The other from Sarah Jane Freyman Agency declining to look at my book proposal.

I also cleaned out my old rejection letter file folder, snipping the edges off each and every one and adding them to my rejection box.