Still No Spaces

 While I wait and pray for data recovery—as I mentioned last week, The Space between Atoms was lost with the crash of a WD Elements drive—I didn’t want to neglect this poor blog.  Since I’m a struggling writer, I’ll note how editors like to kick you while you’re down.

Even while I’m waiting to see if my files can be recovered, I received my weekly quota of rejection letters.  A really good story submitted to a carefully chosen journal, and a collection of stories submitted to a contest.  They all say the same thing—your work is good but there’s so much out there that’s so much better, in my opinion.

You see, I know editors, and it’s those last three words that are the killer: in my opinion.  Editors have likes and dislikes.  They’re the gatekeepers for publication success.

Early in my fiction publishing attempts, I kept submitting to the same publication—Danse Macabre—because I seemed to have found a sympathetic editor.  This relationship continued until one of my stories was relegated to an offshoot publication and not to the main magazine.  I then started looking elsewhere.

I found another enthusiastic editor at Jersey Devil Press.  When health issues led him to hand over the editorial role, I could never get on his replacement’s good side.  You see, an editor needs to get you.

From that point on I tried a more scatter-shot approach.  A story here and a story there—with always rejections and a few award nominations.  The story collection came about because I had many of my best stories never accepted anywhere.  Of course, the collection wasn’t accepted either.

I don’t give up.  I recently saw a meme from another writer showing all the stuff beneath the surface of a talent writer, like the biggest part of an iceberg.  There was a lot of wisdom in it.  Writers are great self-doubters, if they’re any good at it.  It’s just that editors are also especially good at reinforcing that doubt.  Don’t pay them any mind.  Keep on submitting.