My first rejection

Confession: I don't deal well with rejection.

Reading:

• Someplace to be Flying, by Charles de Lint

Listening:

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J. K. Rowling

Writing:

• "Ferian Fetlock Cures a Horse"

Revising:

• "Cora and the Sea"

So I got a rejection today from Realms of Fantasy. It's my first rejection. I'm perversely proud of it, yet also disheartened. I know it takes a while to get a positive response, but at the same time, you always hope that lightning will strike right away.

The rejection was a blue slip of paper, not even a letter. They didn't even bother to fill in the name of the story in the blank left for it on the form. That was just a little insulting.

But on the bright side, I now have yet another story ready to be sent off to another magazine. I want to do that this weekend so that it doesn't just sit in a drawer feeling sorry for itself. (Yes, I'm personifying my story. So what? I'm a writer. Call it artistic license.)