I co-wrote my first peer review for an upcoming anthology last month, and submitted it last Friday. It was a bittersweet experience. I was thrilled to be asked to do it, and bounded into the whole thing like some sort of redheaded sheep dog, ready to romp around and proclaim the piece as wonderful and fabulous. Ultimately, this is not what happened.

We ended up writing a rather long explanation of why we felt the essay should be rejected. In our note to the author, we tried to write the sort of rejection we'd like to receive (assuming we'd like to receive a rejection, which we wouldn't.) We did our best to give specific reasons and suggestions for improvements, and to encourage the author to go back and take another whack at it.

I felt as good about the whole thing as I possibly could. But still, it's sort of awful to click "send" on an email that you know will ruin somebody's day.