Alas

I have been rejected.

No, I rephrase.

A project has been rejected.

actual conversation which followed:

me: "What did they mean by X? They meant it bored them, that's what they meant."
kradical: "Gilman, you're obsessing."
me: "I am not obsessing, I'm practicing rejectomancy. And usually I mock people who do that but hey, I just got the news. Give me ten minutes!"

*obsesses*

Right. On with the next market, then. Because, I've come to discover, the mark of a professional in this field isn't how many publications you've got, or even how much money you make off them. It's the knowledge that it's all about remaking and reinventing and rebuilding, every step of the way, whether you're building on success or non-success*. A project, once finished, is in the past; time to create the new one. A book, once read, goes back on the shelf, and the reader's looking for something new. A submission process, once started, takes on its own sort of life. So: Onward.

I'll stick pins in the editor-doll later.



*under the theory that no project can ever be a failure, even it it doesn't find a market, if you learned somehing from the writing of it.