At the office of Stunning Stories, the friendly receptionist recognized him. She got him in to see Harry Trent almost immediately. The editor didn’t appear to remember throwing him out, he didn’t recognize Bill’s story from the description of it, he didn’t seem to remember Bill at all. In desperation Bill handed him the copy of the story.

Trent read the first page, then looked up. “Oh, yeah. That piece of trash. I mailed out a rejection two days ago, you should be getting it.”

“Rejected? Why? This is the first story written using my new Short Story Expert System, and it’s lots better than what you’ve been publishing.”

“Hey, Kid, don’t look at the past! We have to keep up with the state of the art. Everybody has an SSES now, and yours just isn’t the best. What is it built from?”

Bill started to list his components. As he got to “Acme Electric Food Processor” Trent interrupted. “I thought so. Not good enough. Take a look at this cover for next August’s issue. Trent shoved a sheet of paper into his hand and hustled him out of the office.

The door slammed behind him. Bill looked down at the cover. Blazoned across it in large type was the legend “New story by Asimac Isaamov’s CuisinartTM.”

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