Rejected from Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine

Well, last week I received another rejection letter from Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine. About a month ago I submitted my newest short story, a 2100-word piece entitled ‘Miracle Child’, to four magazines (all of which are online magazine or accept email submissions). ‘Miracle Child’ is about
a ten-year-old boy in Texas whose mother was impregnated by a extra-terrestrial white light that descended on their family farm more than ten years ago. The story is told from the point of view of the child and written in a thick Texas dialect.

What I can honestly say is it was one of the most helpful and encouraging rejection letters I’ve received since I began sending out my short stories last September. She (assistant editor, Stephanie Ann Johanson) gave me helpful comments to improve the story (which were in fact true on second reading) as well as a list of great publisher websites that list other magazines that accept submissions.

Here is the actual rejection letter:

Hello David Halpert,

We received your story submission, Miracle Child, on April 12th, 2008. Miracle Child is the 4222nd submission received by Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine.

Miracle Child does not fit our needs, but thank you for giving us the chance to consider it.

There seem to be some inconstancies in Miracle Child. The first is the style of the storytelling gives the impression of someone that is an uneducated farm boy, but the story is supposedly being told by someone with an IQ of around 200, who is well read and has his Masters in Engineering from a credited University.

The main character talks about his Pa often drinking when he was upset and that the main character had only seen this once before, a few years ago when his granny died. That is a bit confusing, because at this point the reader doesn’t really know how far in the future the main character is telling us this story. If the main character had said that after this point Pa often took to drinking when he was upset, it might have worked.

It felt like the story was a bit mixed up on when the main character was telling us the story, and what he would know at the time of telling it. The idea works. The language works if main character is telling the story as it happens, but as the story is written it feels inconstant. The story has a lot of potential. It just needs a bit more work before sending it to the next publisher.

If you are looking for more publications to submit to, you might have a look at the publisher listings on these sites: www.ralan.com, www.quintamid.com/q/mdb/list, www.rimbaud.org.uk, www.laurahird.com/litmagcentral.html, www.duotrope.com.

Thank you for your submission,

Art director / assistant editor / artist
Stephanie Ann Johanson
Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine
4129 Carey Road
Victoria, BC, Canada, V8Z4G5
www.neo-opsis.ca
neoopsis@shaw.ca

I made the applicable changes to the story but until I receive some more rejections from the other magazines
(which include Strange Horizons, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, and the Intergalatic Medicine Show Magazine) I submitted to I will not begin to submit to other print magazines.

Just another day in the life of an aspiring writer.