Monday, November 28, 2005

A Nice Rejection

Aurealis passed on my short story The Memory of Water today. I thought the reader's comments in the rejection were okay though;

"A nice urban fantasy with a mythic feel. I think the description is overdone in places and it has more of a literary edge - perhaps not quite fantastic enough for us?"
Apart from the "overdone description" (which I, Mr.Purple prose, would never do) this is a pretty heartening rejection. Urban Fantasy, mythic feel, a literary edge! I'm happy with that.

I think I just need to find the right market for this one. So I'm gonna get rid of some of the description and send it out again... but to where? I have no idea as yet.

Calliope: A Steam Romance, one of my other recently completed short stories, is a steampunk story set in Sydney circa an alternate 1910. It seems that in this case my purple prose has come in handy. These comments recently came from a writer's group I'm part of:

"Where did you find the energy to write in this style? It suits the period of the piece perfectly, but it must have been like trying to write in Shakespearean English. Any longer and I would have been too exhausted just reading it. How many times did you have to read Martin Eden to master it?"
Well, I have no idea who Martin Eden is, and the story is supposed to be exhausting... it is for the narrator at least, so I'm happy with that too :)

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