How cool would it be if it were possible (obviously it isn't, this is me wishing for ponies) for all editors to put this amount of time into rejections? No, I don't expect it. Yes, this was a pro market. That's why I was so pleasantly surprised to see it! I mean seriously, how often is it that a rejection makes you feel good about your story?

Nicole,

Thanks for the submission!  I hope you can forgive me for taking so
long to get back to you.

I was very impressed with "Queen's Progress" -- you have a real
gift for prose.  It has a marvelously colorful setting, carefully
depicted, and complex and fascinating characters.

Most readers will be delighted to be immersed in such a colorful and
original landscape, and be patient enough while the narrative takes them
places they don't yet understand. Unfortunately, the opening pages of
"Queen's Progress" are so densely packed with unexplained
references and asides that they are virtually impenetrable.

For example, paragraphs 7 to 11 are pretty much incomprehensible, and the
next few pages are almost as bewildering.  While you take great care
to eventually unravel the mysteries you lay down in those pages, by the
time you do I think most of my readers would have given up.  As
strong as your story is, I'm afraid I'll have to return it, with genuine
regrets.

[etc etc etc],

[Editorperson]

See? It's constructive, it's useful, and the criticisms are specific and absolutely true. Most of my rejections follow this same pattern of "Wow, this was a super cool story and here are some things that we dug about it but we're not buying it." They don't often bother to tell me WHY they didn't buy it, and I love that this one did.

In other news, Blithen's Tarot is off to the agent! Longer post about that later, probably.