I admire your tenacity!
Thanks lil :) These are all mostly "nice" rejections except for Salamander. Salamander was basically like "You think you can write? Fuck you." Although I haven't gotten a really MEAN rejection letter yet - of the kind where the editors ask you why you think you can write etc - I'm sure it's coming in the pipeline, it's a matter of inevitability.
Long ago in a province far away, long before internet publishing, I wrote my first short story independently, as a somewhat adult, not assigned by a teacher. It was about encountering a blind man in a co-ed sauna. I sent it to an early feminist fiction journal in Canada called Room of One's Own. and I waited. And waited. And waited. Eventually a letter arrived. It said similar stuff to the ones you posted "not right for us at this time", etc. But this rejection letter had one line that thrilled me: "Frankly," it said, "it gave us some pause." Since it was my first ever submission of a story, that line gave me some pause. I'll dig the story up and post it here under #shortstory.lil
When you do post it, can you PM the link or shout-out? I am on the go all week and headed out of town Wednesday, but I will look forward to making time to read it. Thanks!