Feedback

It's been three years now since I started submitting my short fiction for publication. In that time, I've seen my share of rejection, and valuable editorial feedback has been as rare as water in a desert wasteland.

"I'm afraid this didn't work for me." That's the most common response, as well as the equally noncommittal: "It doesn't meet our needs at this time."

But when I started submitting my work to Triangulation last year, the editors sent me a page-long critique with my rejection, offering valuable feedback on how to improve my story. I was impressed. And I made a point of sending work to them from then on, whenever their submissions window was open.

My story "While She Sleeps, Mountains Tremble" appears in the latest collection, Triangulation: Morning After, and while the first draft wasn't exactly what the editors had in mind, it was close enough, and they allowed me to submit a couple rewrites until it fit the anthology's overall vision. I received my contributor's copy last week, and I've got to say, it's one of the most professional-looking publications I've seen my work in so far.

Here's how "While She Sleeps" opens:

The sleeping child looked as much like an angel as anyone could.

Kneeling at her bedside in the role of supplicant, Lyra reached out tentative fingertips to smooth back a strand of the girl's silky black hair.

"Goodnight, little one. Do you know how special you are?"

It always struck her without warning in quiet moments as rare as sunshine on the earth's surface: this was Dahlia, the last human child.

There was none else like her.

As with Captain Quasar, Coyote Cal, and Mercer, Dahlia is one of my recurring characters, and "Dahlia's Feast" will continue her story next spring in Aoife's Kiss.

Thanks for reading.