A Combination of Things

Rejection Letter

I got my first rejection letter today. I had never before submitted anything for publication and then one day at work having nothing better to do with myself, I started submitting this “thing” i had been working on for a little while. I think I may have sent it to a dozen or so online and print publications, maybe more. I honestly dont remember now. Anyway, i got my first rejection notice today by email almost two months after i initially sent my submission. Two months is pretty good right? Dont these places usually take six months or more to respond?

I want to have mixed feeling about this but i dont. Frankly i dont care all that much. Maybe its because i dont care about the piece, but i know thats not true because i do care very much. I think its because, and i dont want this to sound like a pep talk or some kind of inspirational monologue, Im not going to let Eclectica Magazine tell me that i stink. The following publications can tell me that I stink: McSweenys, The Paris Review and The New Yorker. Paul Auster can also tell me that i stink. Thomas Pynchon can also tell me that i stink but i dont think he would. that guys crazy. I get a rejection letter from any of these three publications i might say to myself, “Tom you need to make some changes in how you go about the business of ‘writing,’” but until i receive such a notice, letter or declaration from one of the above i will continue to create in the only way i know how, which is almost terrible but not quite so awful that i cant see someone else besides myself enjoying my style.

So, like i said, Eclectica Magazine said no way to “Pointed to Horses.” No big deal.

Keep on chooglin’.