Matters Literary

On my return from New York, I received two interesting pieces of news on my writing. The first was an apologetic email from Martin Smith, editor at the LA Times -- an acceptance/rejection letter. He intimated that my story would have been accepted and printed, were it not that the corporate masters of the Times had, as of that very day, decided to expunge all fiction from the Sunday magazine. It was very kind of him to disclose this, but a near-miss is still a miss. Second, I received a standard rejection letter from Howard Junker. Unlike last time, there were no comments on the piece itself, but there were two brief comments on my cover letter. Perhaps this is a sign that, from now on, where ZYZZYVA is concerned, I should submit cover letters only, and by this means engage in the pleasures of correspondence where the possibility of publication has been foreclosed. Seriously, though... ONWARD!