"This was interesting and well written, but isn't quite what we're looking for."

There it is, my first positive response from an editor!! Poor thing, you might think, he gets so excited on a rejection. Well, I think only those pluri-rejected writers will understand the thrill of the above sentence. An editor complimented story and style - it's the first step!

I remember reading a 'craft of writing' book by Orson Scott Card, and how one of his rejections said "good story, but not for us, keep trying" and it spurred him greatly to keep on writing. Well, I'm taking it as that!

With that in mind, I finished a major revision of "The Blood of Castalsara", and I think it's ready to run through the steamroller which is my professor.

I must say that having an expert mind working carefully with your work is very, very useful. I'm glad I learned as much as I did on my own, but it is more difficult and takes a lot longer. The last review of "Penelope's Dream" was praising and scorching at the same time. But the scorching helped, oh did it help! The new edit of "Castalsara" is a result of such new wisdom. I am loving it!

Next is the full revision of "Autumn Leaves" with the same new metrics in mind, and after that I start work on "Escapism" (which I think is exactly what the publisher of Dark Energy - the mag which gave above rejection - likes to read).

If my career ever takes off, this is a day I shall remember!