Reading: 75th Anniv. Ed of The New Yorker
Music: George Carlin standup
TV/Movie: Waiting for God, The Vicar of Dibley
Link o' the Day: Rhode Island Anarchists

I understand the writers market. Truly, I do. I know the competition is intense and that rejection is part of the game. This is why I don't get all bent out of shape whenever I receive a rejection slip. I also understand the crush some publications fall under when it comes to the volume of submissions they must deal with and how they have to cut some corners when it comes to responding.

Still, I don't see any excuse for unprofessionalism.

Yesterday I received a rejection slip for a story I had submitted to Fantastic Stories of the Imagination. Now folks who keep close watch on market news may recall that since late December, they've been officially closed to submissions due to having overbought, and they won't likely be open for submissions again until 2005.

Fine. It happens. Despite this announcement, they are still getting a steady stream of submissions. This is partly due to the fact that they never updated their webpage stating that they were closed to submissions, and printed market reports were a little behind the times. They've been sending rejection slips stating that they're closed and that the submission was never reviewed.

Again, fine. It's not the best of worlds, but fine. Fair warning--anyone who submitted to this market in December or after should expect this.

I submitted my story in June of 2003.

Think about that... for six months my submission sat in their slushpile unread. Then they decide to close themselves up from further submissions. They have a bunch of submissions postmarked _six months_ prior, but too bad. It's a shame. Send 'em all back. Oh... we should at least give the appearance of having reviewed the submssion. We'll slap a 3-inch slip of paper in the return envelope and send it back.

Fine. It happens. It sucks and it's perfectly understandable for the author to seethe in frustration when they realize that their submission _which sat around unread for nearly eight months_ is being rejected. But there is the sneaky suspicion that the story, despite the slip of paper, is being rejected unread. In that time the story could have hit two or three other markets.

But I won't accuse the editor of such behavior. That wouldn't be right. In a way, however, I'm glad the story was rejected. I'm not overly impressed with their operation right now.

rant-mode off

* * *
Did you know there are anarchists in Rhode Island? Yeah, I was surprised too. It was brought to my attention by a woman who was reviewing some punk acts in Providence, and had a link to their webpage. It kind of reminds me of the ISO (International Socialists Organization) group that I used to see around town years ago. This group here seem awfully organized to be anarchists. They seem more like activists.

Pass.

But the music is good.

Cheers!