Just in time for Christmas...

Enough about amps. Another pursuit of mine is writing—fiction, to be exact. I’ve written a short story or six. One of them, the longest (12k words) and most promising, I submitted to Glimmer Train Stories, [circ. 25,000] in early October. I read two or three issues mid September at The Inn at Aberdeen Lisa and I stole away to for an extended weekend. I felt good about my story fitting there at GTS. It looked right, you know? And their pay-out was nice as well.

Not the first time that story had been shopped either. In fact, EQMM (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine) [circ. 750,000] rejected it. My manuscript passed through all their editors to the very end, after which they sent me a letter “...your story doesn’t meet our current publishing needs.” and all that. Good I guess it got that far at such a large outfit.

Anyway, just weeks before Christmas, I hear back from GTS. It’s all electronically managed... you set up an account, submit your story, and check back. The turn around is sixteen weeks. In that time you should receive two of three messages (the first shown immediately):

1. “In Progress” (self-explanatory)

2. “Complete: Although we won't be publishing this piece, we thank you for letting us read it.”

3. “Accepted for Publication”

So I login. It’s the twelfth week, and I’m getting anxious. Not to mention I could use the $$ with the whole amp thing. I’m expecting to see “In-Progress” just the same as it looked last week. But to my surprise, I find the status box reads: “Complete”.

They passed on it. No explanation, nothing—just a generic, electronic rejection.

Great.

My heart sank like some rusted Cadillac in a muddy swamp. Talk about a Merry Christmas...