W

For the Water~Stone Review, who rejected me this week, bringing me up to A B G M N O Q U S W. I hadn't been expecting that rejection, because it didn't look like they ever cashed my check, and I thought I missed their contest deadline. When I opened it, my first thought was Sweet, I got my "W" after all! Then I realized that it's only April, and I already have ten out of the twenty-six rejections I need. It was several more minutes before it occurred to me to be bummed that yet another magazine doesn't like me. So the alphabet project is having its intended effect.

I tried to explain the project to my students, and they were completely confused. One of them asked, "So you're, like, sending out bad stories on purpose to get rejected?"

No. Sadly, they are not bad on purpose.