Spoiler: They said no.
Got my rejection today. Here it is, in its form-letter glory:
Thank you for sending us “The Widening Gyre: The Remembrance War Book 1”. The Robots really appreciated the chance to read it, and thank you for taking the time to submit it to this year’s Open Door. Unfortunately, this book is not for us.
The “unfortunately” is kind of amusing. Unfortunate for me, definitely. But for them? *shrug* That’s just how rejections are worded. I mean, what else are they gonna say? “You suck”? I admit I’d have preferred a more personal “Hey, here’s what I didn’t like,” but the truth is, they’ve got over a thousand of these to get through; that’s not going to happen. It doesn’t happen with agents, either, most of the time. The one personal I’ve gotten was pretty clear the problem was the agent’s particular likes and dislikes, and I can’t fault her for that, but it’s also useless to me as a writer except to say “don’t submit anything similar to her in future.”
Ah well. The book is back out to agents already, and I’m working on, depending on the day and how I feel, two different books. I have a new project that has really grabbed my attention, so I’m mostly focusing on that, as well as finally finishing a crit I’ve been promising for ages.
Anyway, the day job is technically over for the day, but I have about two days of grading I need to finish by tomorrow, so I’m going to go do that. Maybe I’ll get some writing done tonight, but maybe not–I’m pretty wiped out, intellectually.