Rejected!

Someday I'll look back on this and laugh. Right now I'm just embarrassed.

But I choose to look at it this way: the story was worth 39¢ and an envelope to them.

Earlier this month, I submitted three stories to three different magazines, and forgot to include an SASE with, or write "DISPOSABLE" on, any of the manuscripts. Yeah. 'cause I'm smart like that. And by the way, none of the stories was really very good-- I found them in my old computer files while I was prepping for NaNoWriMo and decided, what the hell, I might as well start collecting rejection slips now. And I have!

As D pointed out, my other mistake with this particular story might have been dropping the F-bomb far too liberally, starting in the second paragraph.* Respectable magazines generally don't like to print too much of that sort of thing. Good to know.

I suspect the other two manuscripts aren't coming back. They won't fit in a #10 envelope, and it's too much trouble for editors to deal with a clueless n00b like me. (in Napoleon Dynamite voice) Idiot! It's probably just as well-- I can and should write better stories now. Just gotta get into the habit of actually finishing them and then sending them out into the world to seek their fortune.

Hey, did I mention that "Antique" was published on the flash-fiction web site 365 tomorrows? That didn't suck.

~CKL

* She asked me: "Were you listening to the Penny Arcade podcast when you wrote this?" But no, it was years before I ever met those hooligans, so I can't claim them as a bad influence.