I just got my best…

I just got my best rejection letter ever. From The Harvard Review (which incidentally apparently didn't get my e-mail withdrawing this story from consideration a few months ago, since it had sold elsewhere, but anyway):

'A Gentle Man'" was a powerful story in many ways. It was well written and had a strong narrative voice. I was engaged by all of the story lines -- Suneel's relationship with his wife, the fates of his two daughters, his lost son...I do feel, however, that you have the groundwork for a novel here, rather than a short story. There are too many story lines that don't get finished, and, frankly, the reader is fascinated enough by the various plot lines to want you to finish them. What happens to Riddhi? What happens to Raji? Is Sushila really having an affair? This is good material, and I hope you keep working on the project.

They called it exactly. It makes me want to write back to them and say, 'well, actually, I did turn it into a novel, and all of those questions do get answered...' Okay, the last one doesn't get answered for certain, but you get a lot more information on which to base your educated guess. :-)

Good editors there. Nice job.

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