After a perfect wedding followed by a lovely honeymoon, I suppose it’s always tough to get back into the drudgery of daily life and work. But who said the difficulty should be enhanced by two rejections in one day?

Sheila Williams over at Asimov’s Science Fiction provided the fourth rejection in a row for Prisoner of war. Even though the story "was nicely done", she "didn’t find it convincing". A slightly encouraging form rejection, but a form rejection… nonetheless*.

And Leading Edge decided to pass on Queen of diamonds, which makes that story the uncontested ‘Queen of rejections’ with a total rejection count of nine. The handwritten feedback provided by the editors makes me wonder what made them not buy the story:

Well-written, enjoyable to read. The story itself is very interesting. […] I like the twist regarding Sondra’s capabilities.

Of course, I ellipsis’ed out the reason they gave for not buying the story. I can’t quote that bit without giving away important plot points, but trust me on this: given that ‘QoD’ is a story about trust, they should have cheered the plot point they object to.

Oh well. At least the rejections are getting better and better; it must be sellable if it gets rejected so enthusiastically.

* Don’t you love the way Bernard Shaw says ‘nonetheless’ in The Return of the King?