Elaine Koster and the DaVinci Code

To properly understand this post you need to get within the mind of a person who gets multiple rejections from literary agents.

Screw that, I wouldn't do that to you. But let's put it this way, prospective authors are looking for ANY sign on a rejection note — even the form rejection — that will give them some clues about their work.

But when I pulled ELAINE KOSTER'S rejection note from the envelope, I didn't really pay much attention that it was from ELAINE KOSTER. That would make her initials E.K., right?

Yes.

But I wasn't paying attention to that. I was looking at the small, handwritten note at the top of the page. It said "Sorry, not for us. EK, 5-31."

At least that was all I saw at the moment. Had I been paying attention I would have noted that the rejection was from ELAINE KOSTER.

Instead, my eye went directly to the "EK, 5-31."

This agent is quoting a Bible verse! I was beside myself. She is trying to send me a clue about my work! But what kind of clue. Quick, I had to find a Bible.

What was EK, anyway? I figured Ezekiel, so I quickly went to find Ezekiel 5:31. There is no such verse, but Ezekiel's Chapter 5 has some interesting passages including this gem:

"I will make you a ruin and a reproach among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by. 15 You will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and an object of horror to the nations around you when I inflict punishment on you in anger and in wrath and with stinging rebuke."

What? What had I done to piss off this woman?

Maybe it was Exodus, or Ecclesiastes. Nope and Nope.

I went back for the tenth time to look at the note. Who was this woman?

It was ELAINE KOSTER, EK. Then I noticed there wasn't just a 5-31, but it was a 5-31-10.

It was the freaking date and her initials.

Somehow, I still feel as if this is a punishment from God.

Yours in rejection,

Phil