Writing: Yay! Rejection
I subbed my story "It's Your Funeral!" to F & SF about a month ago, and I just got a nice rejection from Gordon Van Gelder. Liked the tone & style, didn't like the basic concept. I'm ridiculously happy about this! This is the first story where I really felt that I hit the tone I was aiming for - a mix of funny and dark - so it's great to have an editor validate that. It's also great that the story made it into the hands of the editor, because presumably that means John Joseph Adams, "the Slush God," didn't hate it!
As for the basic concept, it's a chipper little satire about suicide. Some of my friends love it, some don't, and some would be freakin' horrified by it, so I'm not showing it to them. I expect many editors to reject it, either because they don't enjoy the concept, or because I didn't execute it well enough. Which is fine...getting this little bit of validation makes me eager to sub it again, and (much more important) eager to try writing something with more heart to it, so I can take another crack at F&SF.
Yay!
