The Tide of

So, I wake up this morning, yeah?  Had made plans to write 2,000 words today, since I’ve slacked the past few.  So, I’m trucking along, plow through a thousand in two hours.  I break for food and some real world stuff (starting off pretty great, too, like the writing) and as I finish eating I get an email.  Long awaited.  But not long for this business.  It’s from the editor of The Collagist.

The backstory to this is that I sent in my one (1 (single(only))) short story to The Collagist in late July.  To my surprise, I got an email back from the editor after little more than a week, during my first few days here in Riverside.  He asked me to resend the story, as I’d lopped some of it off in the sending.  A good sign, no?  So I resend.  And today–of all days, seriously, Sunday?– I get an email back rejecting it.  The good news is that he said there was good writing in it, and he looked forward to more of my work.  Which is honestly a pretty good silver lining.  But dammit, man.  You just had to wreck my momentum.  So, I blog.  I’m reclined on a couch.  Are you, collectively, putting pens to your lips, saying “hm”?

The wordcount now is 7,658.  In the whole of the text there are 114 commas.  I’m not about to go through 18 pages and see how many of those are contained in dialogue.  But.  That’s not so bad, yeah?  I’m nearly through my designated 2,000 words, and I’m gonna shoot for 3, but we’ll see how well that goes.  I might just sulk and watch The Venture Brothers.   Rejection’s part of this industry, and as far as skin goes mine’s pretty thick.  But the first issue of the journal came out and some decent-sized names are in it.  Would’ve gone a long way for things.  Back on the horse–truck.