Not as Inured as I Thought

I received a partial manuscript in the mail today. Funny thing, since I only gave her a standard SASE, which meant she had to go out of her way to return it to me. She did this I suppose because she wanted me to see her edits.

This is the agent who sent me my query back with edits from a few weeks ago. I found it rather rude. Insightful but rude.

Nevertheless, I was surprised by how few edits she made. I had expected far more. I was also surprised by how subjective her edits were. She changed, "spoke sharply" to just "ask." Isn't that my call? Still in all, not as bad as I thought considering her letter.

She did not like my idea of framing mysteries around other sports and exercise activities similar to the way that Dick Francis' mysteries nipped at horse racing. "You cannot just jump from one sport to another each time" she writes. I can't? Perhaps that is what the reading public is waiting for.

Secondly, she writes: "Bottom line: the writing is fairly good, but.....................you have never read your work as a whole, not as it appears on the screen, nor as it comes in sections out of the printer, but as a whole." Really? I thought I did. I suppose she's telling me to do it again, with a sharper eye.

And what's with the extended ellipses? Later in the letter she whips out seven question marks "????????" I was somewhat surprised she didn't use the ole ALL CAPS to get her point across.

I found the tone of her letter a bit sanctimonious to say the least. I'm thinking of editing it and sending it back. I have no problem with rejection, but I thought this was just rude rejection.