Service with a Smile?

My hunt for an agent has driven me pagan. Sunday School is an undercover act for my idol worship, the beginnings of a trail worn into the lawn by my fanatical obsession between the mailbox and my laptop. It's silly, I've been through this before and I know better, so I'm not going to leave another post full of complaints. And yet...

I heard once about some of the publishers online who will take queries from writers and how they a) send an auto-generated rejection, b) never answer at all, but how about c) they send an auto-generated rejection in under four minutes? Yes "C" is now an opportunity you're going to want to experience. After sending an invited e-query this past week, I received a reply in four minutes, not enough time mind you to finish my e-mails or shut'er down. Wow. They must have some really FAST readers or my work must suck so bad all they need to see is the subject line. "Query" How could I be so stupid? I should have known better than to send something so cliche, something they requested in their guidelines.

Waiting to hear back from a couple short fiction rags, have a couple new pieces to send out I feel good about. Got a callback from a magazine editor wanting some short poetry for their photo essays. They decided to go with another piece after selecting mine in July but hey, they asked for more. What's a writer to do? I live for disappointment. It's the only thing we can count on in life.

Did you see this week's Quote on Yahoo?
"IN THE MIDST OF WINTER I FOUND THERE WAS WITHIN ME AN INVINCIBLE SUMMER."

(A. CAMUS)

I still have two months to hear back from Glimmertrain. That would be icing on the cake to put something out with them. A real boost. Meanwhile, starting to think about the next novel which will base itself on my current project, though I'm switching forward from historical into the present for a contemporary go. With fingers crossed, I plunge into another week.