Last night I receive an email from Jennifer Brozek, editor of The Edge of Propinquity. A few weeks ago I had received an email from Jennifer stating that my story "The Mask of Deslow Mansion" had made it through the first round of readings. Of course I was happy for that good news, and have been waiting with faux-patience for the follow up letter.
I’m in danger of getting off topic here, so I’ll try to keep it simple. Back to the email from last night.
When I saw it come up in my inbox I was just happy that it wasn’t spam. That’s all I seem to get these days. It took me a few minutes to open it, as it always does when I’m opening letters from editors. It started out like this:
"Unlike every other one of my story submissions, you do not get a form letter response."
Ah oh, I thought. It’s a rejection. But at least it was going to be a nice rejection. The kind that come with advice or admonishment. The kind that are like nice girls, who after you hit on them, explain to you why they aren’t going to give you their number, and somehow make you feel all right about it.
I’m not saying that’s ever happened to me (not the being rejected part, the feeling all right about it part) but I’ve heard stories.
Anyway, I forged on through the email. It takes me a second to absorb what I’m reading. I’ve told you before, I’m preternaturally thickheaded. The words are all in English. I just have to wait for my brain to put them in order. When the ol’ gray matter finally kicks in and I see the sentence that follows, this is what I read:
"Rather than keep you in suspense, the short version is: I want this story."
I just love acceptance letters. Love ‘em! Like a fat kid loves cake.
Sorry. I’ll be all right.
"The Mask of Deslow Mansion" is slated to be in either the January or February volume of The Edge of Propinquity.
I can’t wait.
