There's always that...

Over the years I have made a few attempts to get signed by a literary agent, researching agent listings, setting up spreadsheets to follow progress, massaging and re-massaging query letters to make my writing projects sound brilliant and unstoppable. Alas, there has been no success but yesterday I received a rejection letter in a rare category: it was nice, encouraging and not a form letter. It was still a rejection letter, of course, but I actually felt pretty good after reading it. Either I have been beat down to the point of "a little means a lot" or I can appreciate that a non-form letter is a small sign of encouragement in the brutal world of literary representation and book publishing. Glass half empty? Meet glass half full. When the bell sounds, come out fighting...