Matters Literary

[thedarkages]

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!

Comments

[2wanda.livejournal.com]

Yes! ONWARD!

That is really too bad about the LA Times, though.

correspondence

[zyzzyvaeditor.livejournal.com]

seriously, though, altho i admire your reluctance to kiss-and-tell, maybe you should acknowledge just what my comments to you were. after all, i'm not sure we were really engaged in "the pleasures of correspondence," which is very seldom the point in cover letters.

best, howard

Re: correspondence

[thedarkages]

Mr. Junker made two comments:

1. He acknowledged my thanks for sending me an anthology.
2. He suggested that if I was being harrassed over my ZYZZYVA T-shirt, as I had told him, I should wear it under a sweatshirt.

In the interests of full disclosure, that is all.