The world of rejection slips is probably more impersonal than it ever was, now that form letters have been replaced by form e mails.  As a person who is able to work out what people were thinking by the way they placed a stamp on an envelope, (I have a story about that somewhere), I have been able to wring impossible meanings from the placement of a comma in a standard reply. (“They love me, they love me not, they love me – then why did they reject me?”).

So it was lovely today to open an envelope, already knowing there was a rejection in there (only the fourteenth this year), and to see the line “I found your humor quite good”.  And that from someone who last time said “the story didn’t quite work for me I’m afraid”.  Thank you Scott P, that made my day.  And if to some of you that doesn’t seem like much, all I can say is that when you are me, you grab your moments when you can.