It’s not all bad news. This is a difficult story based on Whittier’s Telling the Bees poem.

And the song she was singing ever since
In my ear sounds on:–
“Stay at home, pretty bees, fly not hence!
Mistress Mary is dead and gone!”

There was some good new, though. Joy Marchand, the editor of Shimmer Magazine, said:

…there is a lot in this story that thrills us… We loved the alien environment and thought the premise was wonderful…

but—

They would like revisions. Well, I guess it’s time to start chopping at the story. I sent them back a thank you, asking for what they had in mind.