I mentioned some time back that I had submitted a sci-fi story that I have been working to a Canadian magazine based out of Edmonton. Not the kind of magazine that I suspect many of my gentle readers read being science fiction and fantasy based, never the less I was fairly excited and optimistic. The story I sent is the first in a series of inter-related shorts that will tell a whole story once they are all complete. One of the pieces was recently rejected by the annual acrostic contest. I wasn’t surprised. The story isn’t “stand alone” enough for a short story format that insists on being told using the letters for the alphabet for the first word in each line and just 26 sentences long was too intriguing to pass up. The story wrote itself and I am very proud of it. 

Digression over.

The magazine sent me its standard “your story doesn’t fit our needs” thing. They had the standard advice too.

• try submitting it elsewhere because it may be better suited for another magazine
• join a writers’ group to hone your skills
• remember to “show, don’t tell”
• stories have to be original and compelling from word one to get published – work on that

I was in the middle to trying to get everyone fed lunch and Katy ready for school, so I barely read more than that and tossed it in my desk vowing to send the story off to another magazine within a few days.

Later that afternoon, I noticed a note on the bottom of the letter. Normally the rejection notes I get don’t have P.S’s of any sort. This one basically said that the story had too much exposition in the middle and needed a serious rewrite but they loved the ending and wanted me to send it back when I had a new draft for them to read.

This is really good news. They want me to send it back again. And yes, I already knew about the exposition thing in the middle. My writing group had pointed it out but the few suggestions they gave me for fixing it hadn’t fixed it by much and so I just sent it out hoping that someone might see its merits and give me a few pointers. And notice they did and give pointers they so did not, but the distance of the last couple of months from the story had given me plenty of time to think about it and its relationship to the other stories. I think I know what to do now.

So, I spent two days hacking it and another couple rewriting. It is nearly ready for a beta read (though I have friend of Marsha’s beta-ing it in its original form).

I am really quite psyched. Perhaps if I can show my daughter this story in print, she will stop asking me why I write.