rejection...

So, back in late 2012 Lori Mitchell (from Dark Moon Digest) not only gave me my first publishing credit in the longest time, but gave me my first print credit (while a few of eZines had published me in 2001 and 2009).
It felt pretty good.

They published a dark comedy story I wrote called "Unimportant", which I wrote one afternoon in summer 2011 after drinking a ton of Red Bull and reading a lot of Brett Easton Ellis' The Informers.

I just sent Dark Moon Digest two of my best (recent) stories, "Cleanliness of Maggots" (2010) and "Finder's Keepers" (2014).

Sadly, they passed on both.

However, I will keep submitting.

I had high hopes, but I knew in the back of my mind that they weren't going to publish every damn thing I send to them.

Also significant is the fact that their rejection letter is one of the nicest rejection letters I've never received. It reads thus:

"First off, we want to begin by thanking you for submitting your story “Finder's Keepers” to Dark Moon. We receive dozens of stories everyday, and each one gets read by at least 3 editors.

However, as much as we would love to publish everything we received, we cannot (can you imagine how big our books would be? No one would be able to lift them!). Thus we must sadly pass on your story, and hope you all the best in future works. And just because we are not using your story, it does not mean your story wasn’t good. The fact is, we receive an abundance of good stories, and have to make some real, tragic sacrifices.

So once again, thank you for sharing your art with us, and please submit again to our publication soon. "


I've gotten some that are just scathing... Like personal attacks on me as a person and as a writer... Not just a simple rejection.
Kind of like that scene in Billy Madison, during the Academic Decathlon.

Principal: Mr. Madison, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
Billy Madison: Okay, a simple "wrong" would've done just fine. 

Thankfully, Lori Mitchell is a writer as well as an editor (and a real writer, not one of these self-stylized, pretentious blowhards) and knows how to treat writers.

Thus, I will continue to submit to her magazine.

And other magazines.

Rejection, at this point, is commonplace and simply fuels me.