Writing Journal

Weird Tales29 Dec 2007

One rejection received today, from Ann VanderMeer of Weird Tales, who had this to say:

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read your manuscript. This is a well-written tale but is not quite right for me. Very gruesome and creepy, but I’m not sure it worked for me in the end. Please try me again with something else.

That’s the second story I’ve had rejected from WT in the last few months. In both rejections she called my stories “well-written” and asked me to try again with something else. It’s about as positive a rejection as I’ve received, and it makes me think that she liked the stories, but they just didn’t fit with what she’s trying to do with the magazine. Unfortunately for me, WT is one of the few markets where a story of 7k words will even be looked at, especially one that’s “gruesome and creepy.”

Oh well, back to the drawing board.

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3 Responses to “Weird Tales”

  1. Ken McConnell 29 December 2007 at 6:14 pm #

    I think you mean VanderMeer. Not (Darth)Vader Meer. Then again, maybe not, since it’s a rejection. lol Keep on writing and sending, at least she thinks you can write.

    “Always look on the bright, side of life.” and all that stuff. I’m going to get hit with a bunch of rejections here soon, I can feel it.

  2. Matt Mitchell 29 December 2007 at 9:11 pm #

    What is it with me and writing editor’s names? Well, at least this time I didn’t do it on a submission letter.

    Signed,

    Dumbass

  3. Steve Buchheit 31 December 2007 at 6:55 pm #

    Ann writes the best rejection letters.

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Matt Mitchell

Matt Mitchell has been a rock climber, a parachutist, a lifeguard and a sailor, having sailed throughout the Caribbean, Arabian, Red and Mediterranean Seas. He’s crossed the Arctic Circle, visited the Valley of the Kings, and sailed through Gibraltar and the Suez Canal. He’s swum with sharks and wrestled an alligator and spent several years changing light bulbs on radio and television towers for a living at heights of up to two thousand feet. He is an avid reader, a southerner, technophile, naturalist and part-time adventurer, working and writing in Montevallo, Alabama. He’s a husband and father of two boys. Full bio.

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