So the excitement at seeing the story online-submission go from "reading" to "second read" made me proud and gave me hope. And I tried not to login every day to check the progress.
Then suddenly it went to "final read" and I figured it was a matter of a few more days and so prepared myself for the rejection, hoping that the "comments" box might hold a pat on the head at least. And I tried not to login every hour. Then I figured, the hell with it; these folks are used to writers, they know how sad a segment of society we really are.
It’s not a case of taking it personally, you always do. But it’s different than what you might think for we would rather believe they think we’re idiots then have a thought against our work. No, our work is great; they just don’t like us. Odd, but comforting somehow.
So maybe now I’m kinda thinkin’, well, they probably read each submission three times. No matter that my prior belief was that they really only read the first paragraph if that much at all. Or maybe "final read" means "I’m really going to try this time, just once more, to get beyond the second sentence."
I think I’ll go check again…
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology