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Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Carole DeSanti is Looking for Someone to Love


This is Carole DeSanti’s rejection of an early draft of my second book, an interlinked collection of short stories. The letter says: "Writer, Rejected is an obviously talented writer. She has an ear for dialogue and snazzy, precise skill for description. Her prose is generally quite a pleasure on the page and her clarity is wonderful. To me, though, this collection feels a bit too gimmicky...[BLAH, BLAH, BLAH]...And, she might consider--giving the reader someone to love...." There is a red-pen notation in the margin near this final comment about love; it says “Please," and was scribbled by my then-agent, whom I like to call Secret Agent Man.

Secret Agent Man came very, very close to selling this (apparently disappointing) collection to a Wonderful Editor at a major house. But then the Wonderful Editor’s bosses said they thought my characters were too weird. (Too Weird? Do they read books?) Secret Agent Man and I never recovered from this crushing, last-minute rejection, but we parted the best of friends.

Anyway, if anyone in the blogosphere can find Carole DeSanti a character to love, please, please do so immediately.

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