![]() ![]() At the very least, it’s supposed to make things faster. Technology is supposed to make things simpler. And then I would’ve been left to continue on my merry way in the full bliss derived from ignorance. Would this rejection have sought me down, like a heat-seeking missile? Would it actually have been forwarded to me, or would it have bounced back to its sender, who this time would’ve known exactly how it arrived at his desk-via Canada Post. ![]() I wondered what would have happened if I had moved. I don’t even know if the program was still on the air. So, I was very surprised to see a letter arrive from a very conscientious employee informing me that he didn’t know how my play had ended up on his desk-nor could he imagine the circuitous route that had delivered it to him-but he was going to have to pass. ![]() I was no longer at the same place in my life. I can’t remember how many exactly, but I’m very confident it was in the three-year range. A very long time ago-so long ago, in fact, that I can no longer find the documentation and have to go by memory-I submitted a 10-minute play, of all things, to a program on a Canadian radio station. When you receive an extremely late rejection-so late that it falls into the Rip Van Winkle category-it feels like a slap in the face. Ghosting is alive and well in the submissions process, and sometimes it’s even preferable. It’s the literary equivalent of writing a note that says, “Do you like me? Circle Y or N,” and then getting it back with “N” circled, assuming you get it back at all. But unless you’ve written a manual about the proper application of an electronic device, there’s a part of you in your work and you want to see it do well. We send a piece of ourselves out into the world and then wait to see what happens. The act that follows writing but precedes being published, assuming success is the end result. Not writing itself (although a book that lasts is comparable to a burger that won’t rot) but submitting. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately as a metaphor for submitting. It quickly dries out and without moisture, mold won’t grow.) It goes like this: buy a hamburger from McDonald’s, then just leave it on a shelf to see if it rots. It involves a hamburger, a shelf, and a lot of time. There’s something that people do, but not everyone does it. ![]()
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