I know that authors are told to expect rejection letters, but it still hurts to get one. The third short story I submitted to an anthology was turned down, though the reason for this was in a way, sort of uplifting. The editor noted that the story while story was interesting, it did not fit the projected size as it should. He said the tale was, "caught between a tightly focused character driven mystery short story and a novella/novel length piece of epic political struggle. To be at it's best, the story would need to be either pared down into one, or greatly expanded into the other."

This presents an intriguing opportunity. While I never expected to make the story into a larger narrative, this could be a hint that it could be so much more than what it is. One rule of thumb I follow as I write is N.O.W. - No Opportunity Wasted. If there's an element I could add to a story to make it more appealing, more thought-provoking, then by all means use it. The chance to turn this into a novel (I'm afraid I can't give details on it just yet) is very appealing. I'll have to stick it on the backburner and ponder on it for a while.

Until then, there are three (maybe even four) upcoming anthologies with deadlines in Spring next year, and the themes requested are definitely ones that interest me - a chance to develop an entirely new urban fantasy setting, from which I already have three different stories in development to choose from, and an absolutely perfect venue to introduce FantastaGirl's origin story.

Plight of the writer, once again, continues...