And I am thinking of that fog because it is winter. But also because this morning I got an email from a San Francisco-based literary magazine titled Foglifter. I had been getting so many rejections lately My favorite of these is a short story called "Parrish Hall," which I wrote after a shooter scare at a University where I used to work. When I checked my phone this morning, it showed new email:
"Dear Samantha. Thank you for sending..." it read in that truncated way emails read when they are displayed on your phone.
At this point, I thought I knew what the email would say for I have grown intimate with the way "although we" statements are often couched between a rejection letter's "reading is subjective" rationale, and I finsihed the email aloud in my head. "Dear Samantha. Thank you for sending us "Parrish Hall. We love it and want to publish it!"
And then, much to my surprise, I opened the email. And that is exactly, word for word, what they said!
Thank you, thank you, Foglifter! It has been a long time and I am so happy this story will finally have a home.