1962, I think, would’ve been the first time that I put a story in an envelope and sent it off to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.  There have been dozens since, always coming home, rejected.  Though I must say that editor Gordon Van Gelder writes the nicest rejection letters in the business, and I have quite the collection, I’d seen my share.  Breaking into F & SF had become a dream of mine.  I would’ve said impossible dream, until today.

He said yes!  Hallelujah!  Carlos, our letter carrier, must’ve heard me hollering half a block away.  “The Fairy Princess” will be appearing in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction!
I don’t have a pub date, and other mags pay better, but I don’t care.  I’m delirious with unrepentant joy.  Now I have to go grade a stack of student papers.  Perhaps the gods have smiled upon them as well.