After sending it again, my agent received an e-mail that said, "Oh, yes, I remember seeing this now, as well as another proposal from the same author.  That makes me wonder about the author's ability to commit to such diverse projects.  It makes me question his sincerity.  I think I'll pass."

Well, of course, I fired off a seventeen-paragraph diatribe to my agent on just how capable I am of multi-tasking, with my years of experience in business, finance, the space industry, writing, teaching, and newspaper, magazine, book, and photo publishing.  Plus a few dozen others I barely touched upon.  I concluded with the admonition that I am capable of writing a book and chewing gum at the same time.  "If Ms. XXX doubts me," I told my agent, "have her try me.  She won't be disappointed."

The editor, after taking a day or two to shake off the dust from her ignorance and arrogance, wrote my agent that she had no idea that I was such an accomplished and experienced writer "with all of those impressive credits," but that, in the end, she didn't think her house was the right fit for my project.

Which is a nice way of saying, of course, "Boy, did I make an ass out of myself that time."  Which, of course, she did.

The bottom line is this: If you're going to defend yourself against defenseless comments made by editors firing across your literary bow, do so nicely enough so that you don't come across as attacking the editor's intellect personally, no matter how tempted you are to do so.

The next-to-the-bottom line is this: It won't matter, because you're still going to get turned down by that editor.  That's just human nature.

But you'll feel a whole lot better about dealing with that editor the next time.  And maybe, just maybe, she'll take you a bit more seriously.

Until then...

Smoke if you got 'em.