Aspiring writers’ hearts are notoriously brittle. Why else would anyone query only once, or twice, or a small handful of times, then give up
altogether, assuming (wrongly) that if his book were really meant to get published, it would have been snapped up instantly?
Quoted for truth.
I think I may have just witnessed this dynamic at play in a strange way last night. The iDiom theater puts on something they call Serial Killers once a year, where 6 serial plays compete to perform all five nights. Each night, one of the plays is voted off. The last two plays standing this time were Spacetronaughts and Lay Me Gently On The Floor. Strictly speaking, all the plays competing were Shakespearean in nature. But Lay Me Gently…” was a surreal parody of labor issues and romance while Spacetronaughts took place in space. Spacetronaughts was definitely the better play, it’s wit, humor and message were on par with it’s competitor, but it had a much more coherent plot, and far more successful allusions and pop culture references. By all rights it should have won, but instead the night ended in a dead tie.
I’m not complaining about that, but I have noticed in the past when there have been space themed plays in Serial Killers, audience members have said rather loudly, “Oh, I’m voting against the Science Fiction one. I don’t like Science Fiction.”