A couple of more rejections to note:
#4. “Pahwakhe” from ChiZine, 2 December 2006 — they said it was “a fine story, it’s not quite weird enough” for their tastes. Some nice encouragement. This same story is still pending at HLQ.
#5. “Soul Competency” from F&SF, today. Form letter, I think: “We’ll pass. There’s some fine writing here, but it didn’t grab my interest.” I’m trying to decide whether to submit it somewhere else as is, or maybe get it critiqued and rework it before sending it out again. But I think I might just send it out again, as critting and reworking might just drain the life from it.
I was momentarily discouraged, but only for like, 2 seconds. There are tons of places to send “Soul Competency”, and I’m sure I’ll sell it eventually. Or, work it into a better form, or something. Or maybe it’s part of the pile of stories I need to write before I start consistently writing publishable work, I don’t know. It’s not a big deal, anyway.