I got an email that said my short story was denied because they were afraid my mother-in-law was going to sue them.

So, I was going to ask if anyone had any advice on a topic in a separate post, but I ended up figuring it out as I was writing the post. I thought I'd still share this fun (and mildly disturbing) story.<br><br>I wrote a short story that was inspired by all of my mother-in-law's diabolical comments and actions. This is a woman who has belittled and insulted mine and my husband's every life choice, who has laughed in our face about our struggles, who has said that she wishes my husband was dead, who has said that we can't come to Christmas dinner because she doesn't want the guests to see my skin condition, who has said she's afraid to hug my husband because my skin condition is contagious (it's not).<br><br>I'm a pretty private bookworm who doesn't really talk to anyone, but my mother-in-law's open (and hearty) disdain for me has turned the heads of many. I can't count how many people have come up to me and asked if I'm okay after being in the room with her for a while. It's been a big source of inspiration for a lot of my writing, and it's very healing to write about characters with the same personality as my mother-in-law getting their comeuppance. For some reason, therapy doesn't have the same healing effect as telling my mother-in-law that she's a big bag of shit in the middle of a forest.<br><br>So, basically, I wrote a story about an awful mother-in-law and how her son handled it. It was a very loving and wholesome story in the end, and I thought it was my best story I'd ever written (it's hard to tell, though, because I'm my own biggest critic). I figured that I had a good chance of getting my story published by a very well-established (and well-received) literary magazine.<br><br>So, I submitted my story, and I waited for a month and a half for feedback, only to get an email that said they loved my story, but they couldn't accept it because the character reminded them too much of my mother-in-law, and they were afraid she'd sue them. I was in such shock when I read that that I can't even describe it. I was almost in awe, but mostly upset at the blatant insinuation that my mother-in-law would do something as crazy as that.<br><br>In the end, I decided to submit my story to a different literary magazine, but I thought this whole experience was too funny to not share.<br><br>TLDR: I wrote a story based on my shitty mother-in-law, and a literary magazine rejected the story because they were afraid my mother-in-law would sue them.