Post a rejection letter Friday

Well... I saw this over at Tobias' website and decided to jump in.

http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/2008/07/11/post-a-rejection-letter-friday/

Okay, the first: This was for my short story SO FAR

Thank you for your submission to Neverlands and Otherwheres (previously Far, Far Away). Unfortunately, we've decided not to accept your story for publication in our anthology. Don't be too discouraged, though--if you're reading this, your story made it past the initial cut. This means you can probably still find a good home for your story somewhere out there.

Please keep Susurrus Press in mind the next time you have a great story you'd like to see published. Our magazines, Susurrus and Atomjack, are always looking for quality stories, and there are more anthologies on the way.

The problem with this particular story is the second person, future tense, alas. All these anthologies like it but they don't like the distancing and the fatalism of the future tense second person. But that's what I wanted. I have learned however, never to use future tense and/or second person ever ever again in creating a story. And honestly, I'm too lazy to go changing that story.

Then there was this one for my story People of the Dark Mirror

Hi, Carole.

This story was the on the edge for a while, especially how if included in an anthology about fairy lands and alternate worlds, it would put black people in America in the same category as fairies and otherworldly creatures. But ultimately, I think it takes place in a little-too-real world for this anthology. It would seem out of place, and that's not really the point of a themed anthology, you know?

I have no recommendations as to how to improve the story, but I recommend sending it along to Susurrus Magazine, our surreal/bizarro/strange fiction online magazine. I think it would have a fighting chance in the pits over there.

Okay, I totally know what he meana. Lord knows I myself consider it a might preachy in its own overly political way but I did it as a king of lark for Black history month. I didn't want it rooted in the real world but I was also on the edge there too I think. Wanting it to exactly mirror the real history of black folks but also wanting it to be a story in its own right. I don't know if it's an actual story, though. It's a bit polemic. (One other editor rejected it and was way more hateful and snippy about it.) I like the story, though. It's still a sweet little take on African-American history and oppression.

So there...my latest rejections.
-C