on adding to my file of literary magazine rejections

I opened my mail and received a rejection letter from Hayden's Ferry Review. I sent them a short story some-odd months ago, and then I received a "you are in the second round of consideration" letter, and then finally a rejection that said "your work made it deep into the decision-making process" and that the editors had given it "several readings."

This is a good sign, of course, for my embryonic little fiction career (I had a story published in the Powhatan Review, did some readings at Cornelia Street Cafe, and then was possessed by the incubus of comedy).

However, a long, drawn-out, we-like-you-but sort of rejection is, in a way, kind of worse than a flat-out rejection. It kind of makes you say, oh, but things could have been so good for us! What are you doing over there, you dark, handsome literary magazine? We made it so far! Why stop now?

Hayden's Ferry, let me just say: you have no idea what you're missing. If you could see me, I'd totally be doing that thing where I playfully slap my own ass as I walk away.