My first time..

Three weeks ago I took my fragile ego in my hands, scraped my courage together, sent up a prayer to the Muses and sent off a short story for consideration to TTA Press. I waited, bated breath, worrying, until finally, on Friday morning, I peered down the passage and spied the envelope ...

I ran there, like a maniac, almost killing myself as the door was in the way and my momentum was just too much. So I slammed into the door, startling the sleeping dog into fits of anger and loud barking. Nursing a knocked knee I grabbed the gnawed upon post, courtesy of the dog, and limped to the diningroom. I ignored the large envelope and first checked the bill from Orange. Pheg. They are sending £54 back into my account. I thought "hey, it can only get better."

I steadied my nerves by making some tea. I had a light rich tea biscuit first then tore open the envelope. Out came the story, all eight pages of it, a registration form to subscribe to their various books and lo! my first ever rejection slip.

I read through it. It was standard fare, or so I have read - thank you for submitting your work but after careful consideration we will not be proceeding to publish your story...

So I sat back and giggled madly to myself. Giddily I rang FG at work. Told him about the fact that we are getting money back from Orange and hey presto! I have my first rejection slip. We both started giggling. It was SO cool. I know, in theory, I should be hugely disappointed and stuff but the sheer fact that SOMEONE ELSE besides wordweaver, FG and Viv had read the story, had taken the time to seriously consider it for publishing was such an unbelievable rush. It was amazing. It was druglike. I felt ontop of the world. Who cares that they aren't publishing it. They READ it! It is a fab feeling.

Ye gods, can you imagine my reaction if they actually decided to publish it?

Subsequently, I have come to realise that the story might belong somewhere else. A magazine I had bought at Forbidden Planet has EXACTLY the kind of stories in it that mine is about...I know, for an aspiring author I just messed that sentence up so badly...but hey! I have read all nine stories in the magazine and will visit their website and see what their submission guidelines are.

Hey presto - happy shiny girl!