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I got critiques from two editors, which was nice of them. It's got good stuff and bad, which has the double bonus of makign me feel good about myself, and showing me areas of improvement. One of the editors wrote "...above all else, your characters are very well developed." I was very pleased to read that, as I've always felt that characterization was my strong suit, And I'm glad to see that I'm not alone in thinking that.
The other editor wrote that he felt the Sci-Fi aspects of the story were rather superfluous, and it seemed like they were only there to make it fit into the genre. I can see where the guy is coming from, because it was the one thing I worried about more than anything with "Long and Short." The story, as well as several others I've written, are all set in the same universe, which is very definitely Sci-Fi. However, this story takes place on a colony with a pre-Industrial culture (based heavily on 16th century Japan, to be precise), so the larger backdrop can easily be missed, and the few elements of technology on the planet probably do seem to an outside viewer like they're just thrown in so I can claim it's Sci-Fi.
On the other hand, the other editor seemed to like how I combined a Space Opera-style future with an ancient culture, so maybe I'm just worrying about this too much. I think what I'll do is go over the story again and see if I can make the clearly Sci-Fi aspects of it seem more seamless.
Overall, the comments were positive, but obviously not positive enough to be accepted. It took a while longer than I expected to hear back from them, but aside from that I feel this was a pleasant experience, and I'll certainly be submitting more stuff to Leading Edge.
-E. Maxfield Moen
