I received two rejections in the mail today. Yuck. Both sent me personal letters. One editor said the story was predictable. OK, fair enough -- for that editor the story was predictable. It's a judgment call, and that's how that editor judged it. No big deal. I still believe in the story, so it will go out again on Monday, unchanged, to the next market on my list.

The other rejection was a bit difficult to take, though. This editor thought the physics in the story (I used some theoretical physics concepts to make a new invention of sorts) would not work. This was a "research" story, and the physics I used was very accurate, so I know the editor is wrong, if that really was his reason for rejecting the thing. The way this invention works in the story is highly counter-intuitive, though. I anticipated that it might be questioned, so in the story I had one character voice some disbelief that it would work, and then another character explains it, referencing the real-world work in this field that demonstrates the concept. It may be just a bit heavy handed, but it was necessary to tell the reader (and the editor), "Yes, I know this seems unlikely, but the concept is sound and can be found at xxxxx." But still, the editor didn't buy it. Perhaps if I were a more well-known and respected author, this would have been OK, but I'm still fairly low on the totem pole and the editor (although he has bought several stories from me in the past) didn't trust that I had done my homework. I'm tempted to send him the references and an excerpt to show him he's wrong and my science is sound, but replying back to an editor in defense of a rejection is usually considered poor form.

I'll send that story out, unchanged, to another market on Monday, too. I'm thinking I ought to print a one-page excerpt from a physics website that shows that I didn't just make up some rubber science. That may be a bit excessive, but it burns my butt to get rejected for bad science, when in fact the science is the one area I'm certain about. Now, getting rejected because it's a boring plot, or the characters are too stock, would have been a different story.