It’s a good thing I’m pregnant or else by now I would have turned to the bottle.

Okay, that is somewhat of an exaggeration.  I don’t think I could ever get that depressed, at least not over rejection letters for stories that I wrote in my free time.  If my stories were my only means of survival, then yes, I could very well see myself caressing a bottle of whatever I had handy to help soothe the sting of rejection.  Going through this experience, though, I totally understand why the writers of old had a vice to quell the demons of failure/rejection, whether it was alcohol or drugs or some combination of the two.  I’m hoping that I never, ever reach that point.  Please, someone, slap me upside the head if I even get close.

So today’s rejection letter is my first personal rejection letter.  The one rejection from Carve Magazine was kind of like a personal rejection letter, but this one goes into far more detail.  They had a lot of nice things to say about “Jenny Kissed Me” and I understand the issues they had with it to some extent, why the ultimately said, “Thank you, but no thank you.”  I am going to try and take their criticism, along with what the editors from Carve had to say, and make this story better.  I’m not sure if it means I have to make the story a little longer or if I have to flesh out some of the scenes to make it “stronger”.   I guess I’ll figure it out in time.  I just need to sit down with her, maybe take her to a workshop, and pull her corset strings a little tighter.  The only thing I know for sure is that one day, some day, I will find a home for “Jenny Kissed Me”.  It will happen.  I just have to keep trying.

Rejection letters are mini-battles.  Getting published is winning the war.

Oh, the things we say to make ourselves feel better.

Rejection Letter #28 – Fabula Argenta Magazine/Silver Pen

Dear Gabrielle Olexa,

Thank you for sending us “Jenny Kissed Me”. We appreciated the chance to read it. Unfortunately, the piece is not for us.

I found this to be one of the better “relationship” stories that we’ve received (and we do receive a number of those). The premise is interesting, the writing is good, we liked the well-drawn characters, it’s laced with bits of humor, and the piece has a somewhat memorable quality to it. So, it wasn’t an immediate rejection. In the end, though, we didn’t consider it strong enough overall for our magazine.

Our main issue was that the ending was too abrupt and didn’t lead the reader anywhere or to any conclusion as to what might happen next. We also would have like to know more about Jack. We don’t find out until later in the piece that he too is taking classes. He must have a job somewhere. We know more about Jenny than we do about Jack, whose story this is. Also, let us know sooner who the main character is. From the opening, it could be a male or female.

Anyway, thanks for the read. Best of luck with this.

Sincerely,
Rick Taubold
Fabula Argentea Magazine