Workity workity

I came home to (or with, since most were via e-mail) a slew of story rejections—I guess editors were cleaning out their In Boxes. Several of them were so close, which is good (close is better than not at all) and bad (ack! not close enough!). In two cases, I’ve been invited to resubmit the same story later: one because it’s a holiday-themed story and they’d rather not sit on it until August when they start planning their holiday issue, and the other because it came so close to this anthology that they’d be happy to consider it if they do another antho in the series.

Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, I suppose, but now I have a pile of stories to get back in the mail! I’m spending a little time this morning printing the e-mails for the hard copy files, moving them (and the submission e-mails) into the Rejections folder in my e-mail, and so forth.

And yes, I did get Very Good Things, too, such as

• a “this is being passed up to the editor” e-mail
• comp copies of Best Lesbian Romance 2010 (containing the reprint of “Queens Up,” my wild west story)
• a request for a bio for another reprint story (one of my Battletech stories, but I don’t know which one yet)
• the cover of Retro Spec: Tales of Fantasy and Nostalgia, which will include my story “The Devil Went Down to the Sunset Strip.” Isn’t it pretty?!

Thanks to…

• Sheri for calling me from the concert in Anaheim during “A Criminal Mind”
• Nanci, Lenny, and Monk for recording the same song and texting me simian hugs and banana love
• Fran for calling me the next night for an unidentified song, then again during “A Criminal Mind” and then leaving the phone on for six songs
• Tani for sending PG Tipps (I immediately threw out the swill I was drinking and made a proper cup of tea)
• Susan for coming to the viewing and also bringing me PG Tipps
• everyone, absolutely everyone, for their e-mails and blog and Facebook comments of condolence and support. I’m sorry I can’t thank you all individually right now.
• Don for picking up my sister and niece at the airport
• Morgana, Melanie, and Deborah for keeping the cats fed, watered, scritchied, and loved
• Anyone I might, in my somewhat sleepless state, have forgotten at this moment

Love you all…

My dad

Walter George Dermatis, LTC (Ret)

February 27, 1929 - January 14, 2010