Bookmark It

Sadly, the prose editors of the Hayden's Ferry Review have declined my short story. It's the usual 4 by 6 scrap of paper rejection, but these literary journals are on a tight budget. Three months after sending, it's a "no" and I move on to the next round.

Tight budget on the rejection slips, yes, but they sent me a lovely parting gift. Two gifts, in truth, both bookmarks.

The Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing has an on-line book club, and it's open to one and all. Just pop in whenever you like at this location and you too can join in the fun. I haven't tried it yet, so I can't give it a thumbs up or down. While you're there, check out the link for the Writer's Studio workshops. According to my hand-dandy bookmark, there's to be a session beginning January 15 and running through the week of March 5. It's promised to be a 'craft-intensive workshop' for 'writers of all levels' and the sessions will be conducted by local community writers. Sounds like the English department professors to me, but who can say.

What about the other bookmark, you ask? That would have been best left out of the SASE. I understand that the editors need to advertise the subscriptions and gift donations to bring in some much needed cash. The problem there is that I don't have the money, since my work was rejected and I won't be getting $30 per page. These submissions run into some money, you see. That's not the worst of it, not at all. The rather annoying aspect of this lovely bookmark is the list of authors whose words were accepted for the Spring/Summer issue. Thanks for rubbing my nose in the rejection by displaying the lucky few, Harper's Ferry Review. If it's all the same to you, though, I'll be shredding it. Rejection is bad enough without a trumpet blare for someone else's triumph.