Rainy Sunday

.....it wouldn't be raining on a Sunday afternoon when I am already downcast by a rejection the mailman brought yesterday. The rejected story has a plucky hero with a habit of enhancing reality in the tales he tells. It has pirates, ghosts and a missing treasure. It's aimed at middle schoolers who are good readers but not mature enough to handle the content of YA's,and I believe boys in grades 3,4,5, and 6 would find it exciting and enjoyable. That was the assessment of the rejecting editor, too. However--and when I read letters from editors I'm always dreading those "However's"--however, it's a tricky length, too short to be a true novel, too long for a short story. (Not that anyone is printing short stories these days). In short, it's a hard sell, not something the editor could pitch as a potential block-buster. Just a literate, traditional story for boys. The kind teachers tell me are hard to find. So in my perfect world, an editor could accept a story she liked without worrying about its "marketability."

.....and one more thing, in my perfect world, Dickens (cat number 5) wouldn't walk over my keyboard when he gets up from his nap behind my laptop. Of course, if he had an apt phrase or two to add to this...