I took a short, unexpected vacation from a lot of the Internet, and an actual, scheduled vacation to Edinboro this past week, and both of those things proved tremendously helpful. The latter more so than the former, of course, but that’s because it involved good times with friends (and, of course, shitty fast food and some alcohol consumption).
The week also involved a good deal of editing on “Death at Teatime” because it received its first proper letter of rejection. I sent it to a magazine titled Bartleby Snopes (absolutely, definitely check out their page and read some of the stories they’ve published, because it’s really enjoyable), and within twenty-four hours I received a detailed, polite, and very nice rejection. Despite my anxiety over the whole affair, this ended up really giving me a boost to get this story fixed up more and sent out again. The only major issue I could fix without a total rewrite involved a few odd point of view shifts. A couple other little tweaks were made, thanks to the very helpful editorial eyes of a handful of people, and I looked around on Duotrope again on Thursday night. Sent it out for its second go at getting published, and I’m hopeful so far.
Regardless, I’m going to keep at this until I get published, or die of old age; whichever one happens first.
Speaking of Thursday, or Thor’s Day perhaps, I did get accosted by a drunk man who I only know as Thor. That’s a story I won’t be sharing, mind you, but it’s worth mentioning because it’s one of a few things that helped make this past weekend a memorable one.
Writing and whatnot will resume tomorrow, once I feel less dead from staying up far too late.
Phil's Misadventures In Fiction 
I’ve been Googling “general bloggity stuff” everyday, 300 times a day, for 27 years. 27 YEARS! And finally… here you are. A person who writes general bloggity stuff.
Ain’t that something?
Actually, I made that up, but I do want to say good luck on getting the story published. If you got a personalized reply, it’s probably pretty good and likely to land somewhere way before old age strikes you.
You raised my hopes, only to dash them expertly. Well played. Honestly, I didn’t want to just put all of my general posts as “General” and I couldn’t think of anything better (I briefly considered “Shit I Can’t Properly Categorize” but I only see that ending badly.).
Many thanks for the kind words. It’s a rare thing I’m actually proud of something I’ve written, and I quite like this particular short story (oh, deadly hubris?). Naturally, if/when it gets published there will be some linkage here. Thanks again!