My Cats Will Eat Anything
On those days when I come home to find one of my stamped self-addressed envelopes waiting in my mailbox, and a polite little rejection slip tucked inside, I think I should just call it quits. Sometimes I see a rejection and I think I should give it all up and go to cosmetology school like I’ve always secretly wanted. I could become a make-up artist, move to Hollywood, and begin an ill-fated affair with one of my celebrity clients. He would eventually leave me for some fancy young starlet and they’d move to the Hills and adopt a million beautiful but impoverished foreign babies and I’d waste away in bitterness and regret, dying an anonymous death in my $2,000 a month studio apartment and my cats would eventually eat my face. Sometimes that seems like the only feasible plan. That is, until I get a letter like this:
From the Advisory Board Committee:
Your story is excellent. It set the scene and mood immediately and presented the conflict. Then the two wonderful characters—we love the mother. At that point, we could not give up on your excellent story and read through to the end. What an ending! Not expected but it fits.
Yes, it will find a good publisher. We are sorry it cannot be us.
From the Editor:
I read it too—a great story. It’s too bad we have to send it back.
So, it’s still a rejection—I guess I didn’t submit in time as they’d already filled their issues for the year. But considering the number of submissions journals get and the time it takes to comment on manuscripts, a note like this really is the next best thing to an acceptance. It’s not a publication but it’s enough to keep me going. I choose to believe them when they say my story will be published. Cosmetology school will have to wait. Which is a shame, really. I’ve always wanted to powder George Clooney’s nose.
Until next time!
Rachel Luria
PS
Sorry for the late post—this has been a busy week of conferences. I will return to my Monday posting schedule after Spring Break—I’ll be off having a mild vacation.
March 8th, 2008 at 4:04 am
See if your cats will eat the rejection letter.
March 12th, 2008 at 2:51 am
Ha! As much as I would loooove to have you in LA . . . . it had better be as a writer, and not as Clooney’s nose-powder girl (although, you’d better give me a call if you are ever in a position to do so)!