Weekly Slush Pile Update September 19, 2005 – Posted in: Sybil's Garage
Weekends are usually when we get to catch up on our reading, so a number of rejections have been sent out over the past two or three days. If you didn’t get one yet, it probably means we’re still thinking about your story. Here are the stats so far:
Of them, we have rejected 28.
We have accepted 3, are considering a 4th and a 5th.
A well known author has agreed to be interviewed by us.
There are 23 chromosomes in the human genome.
The moon is approximately 1/4 million miles from Earth.
The Earth is an oblate spheroid.
So is Dick Cheney.
We would like to see more Science-Fiction, so I’ve updated the guidelines to reflect that.
Being on the opposite side of the rejection pile for the second time in a year lets me see things from the editor’s point of view. I won’t reiterate what’s already been said a thousand times by other editors, but remember this: All the editor ever sees from you, the author, is a cover letter and a story. Make sure you do your best to convey your professionalism in those two items. Even if you’ve never sold a story in your life, you can still show professionalism by following the specific directions in the guidelines, by doing your homework before you send a story (i.e. Google is your friend).
There. Enough said.
In other news: I’ve comissioned a talented artist to draw two black and white pictures for Sybil’s, and I came up with a really cool idea for the cover of issue #3 while urinating in a bar on friday. No, it has nothing to do with toilets. It’s just that bar restrooms when inebriated tend to have some kind of preternatural power to influence thought in a positive way. They are a bastion of the post-intellectual elite.
And completely not related to the above posting in any way, we’ve discovered that my cat and my cousin’s cat are somehow closely related because a) they look nearly identical and are from the same brood b) they both like to sleep on their back in the middle of the room and c) they like to knock over their water dish and see the liquid roll along the ground. They have never met. To prevent my kitty, Lucy, from knocking over her bowl I’ve attached velcro strips to the bottom of it. It sticks to the ground now like a nerf toy. No matter, she kicks the water out with her paw. (I can see her smirking at me now) So, I’m wondering if water-fascination, as I’m calling it, is inherited from one generation to another? I thought cats were supposed to hate water.