Well, I’ve had lots of rejections, but this is the first one since Banff. It’s for Five Crates of Dragonroot, which is actually the first chapter of the novel Curse of the Blackswan. This is the same chapter that I submitted to the Banff group and have since edited.
The rejection comment was:
This work is well written but unfortunately didn’t hold my interest enough to warrant acceptance.
Okay, nothing to worry about. I wasn’t really expecting much out of this one. Not that I didn’t HOPE something would happen, but really, this was written as more of a writing exercise than a stand-alone short story. There are no themes, no real arcs…just my main character trying to steal 5 Crates of Dragonroot.
Keep your chin up, Ryan. You’ll find a home for that one. Where are you sending it now? (And this would be the hard part — at least for me. Sending it out again. Product, right? Just like tires.)
I don’t know where to send it. I’ve sent two stories to Realms of Fantasy…so until I hear back from them, I don’t want to send them another. I better get out there and figure out the marketplace! I need to generate a list of 10-20 short story markets.
You know back to my days at University for Visual Arts one of the things I had the toughest time was the rejection. When you pour yourself into something and create what you want to create, and hearing even one person not like it, it was very difficult for me. And I decided at that point that I’d probably never be able to make it as a painter/sculptor and that anything I made was solely to please myself.
Being a graphic designer is much easier because I am creating from the get-go with someone else’s wants and desires so it is much easier to please in that respect.
I have respect for you, in that regard for putting those ideas out there. And for some reason, I just get this feeling with you, that one day it’s going to ‘hit’ with you. And it will take off. And then I can be that friend that lives off you like the guys in Entourage. 😉