A peek into the September 2025 Substack…
I wrote a short story based on a prompt for a local literary event last fall. I read that story out loud before an appreciative audience.
Afterward, during that break between Christmas and New Years (when I tend to submit a lot of work), I revised that piece further when I saw the call for submissions for a specific anthology where I thought it might fit well.
I submitted the story, and a couple of months later, womp-womp, it was rejected.
But that’s okay. I’ve seen thousands of rejections in 30+ years of creative writing. And for the record, it was a gentle, pleasant rejection directly from one of the anthology’s highly regarded editors.
I retooled the story, ran it through at least one critique group (I belong to several), polished it even further, and resubmitted it later in the spring.
A week or so ago, I received another rejection. Fine, no big deal.
Except, wait.
In the rejection, this:… [Read more of this and other great stuff FREE at the Rhymes With Camera Substack ]
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