From the rejection letter:
Thank you for submitting “Outside, Looking In” to Strange Horizons, but we’ve decided not to accept it for publication. This is an intriguing and poetically written piece; we all liked it (I felt the story really hit its stride at the point when the protagonist showed up on Earth). But overall it didn’t really hold together for us.
At least they liked it enough to give me positive feedback, and not a “Please quit sending us stuff” letter like Snoopy always seems to get.
On to the next one. F&SF, probably.
later
Or maybe ASF, or something along those lines. I was thinking of a different story, one that’s more definitely on the Fantasy side of the curtain (“Fimbulvetr”, if you’re interested).
I sent them “My Troll Lover” a couple weeks ago — haven’t heard yet. They’ve always been good to me with regard to comments; F&SF, on the other hand, has never given me anything but form letters on tiny slips of paper half the size of your average ass wipe. My advice on F&SF: first change your name to Kage Baker or Robert Reed or Paul Di Fillipo. Me no like F&SF.
The one time I submitted to them, the response was very rapid (less than a month, IIRC), and the letter, while small, was personalized. Paraphrasing from memory, it said something about “There’s some good writing here, but I’m afraid it doesn’t quite do it for me”, or words to that effect. It was signed in green ink* by an editorial assistant, not Mr. van Gelder hisself.
But I think I’m gonna try Asimov’s first. See how that goes.
-pat
* No, I’m not obsessive, nor do I have an eidetic memory. I just was going through my “scribblings” folder last night, and came across the rejection note, and it struck me as odd that it’d be signed in green.
Sounds like the same bloke who likes to shoot my stuff down. Waspy name like John Philip Thomas Johnson III, isn’t it? That’s one of his form letters.