I wanted to take a moment to touch on a subject I’ve been thinking about.

I started to write a long-winded post about some of the things I’ve experienced lately, but then I stopped part of the way through. I’m not one of those people who enjoys giving you the up-to-date details on where I ate last night, what I thought about the various media I enjoyed this weekend (the ATHF movie, and Nip/Tuck), family or friends I went to visit, or any of that other mundane stuff. Hey, I’m not knocking anyone that does on their blogs — I frequently enjoy reading such posts to see what’s going on with folks — but it just (usually) isn’t me.

I think increasingly many blogs are established out of the need to fulfill this obligatory notion that posting details of our private lives out on the web signifies us as hip, web-savvy, or “with it”. Call me strange, but it’s just not what I’m into. Before anyone flames me, let me reiterate, once again: if you enjoy writing a very personal blog, more power to you. They can serve many purposes, especially as a cathartic outlet after a stressful day, or as a handy way to keep in touch with friends. Ultimately, though, I just can’t get used to it. It feels forced.

I think the approach of folks like Scott Sigler, Matt Wallace and Steve Eley tends to work far better. You’ll get little snippets of their life, but it’s almost always in the context of whatever it is they’re up to in their writing or editorial careers. And it’s usually quite entertaining, done with biting humor or intelligent commentary. I’m not necessarily referring to blogging in their cases, either — Matt does, but in Sigler and Eley’s respective cases, the form is a little different. They sprinkle bits and pieces of personal updates in their podcasts, and I think it comes off quite well.

So, since I’ve put my stance on personal blogging, let me recap the week with a writing update:

1) Finished “Spired” and revised it twice and did a hard-copy edit and will work on the tentative final revision after I get done with this post. Then I’ll pass off a copy to First Reader, and probably inflict a copy on Michael Anthony. Pity him, people. The poor bastard gets to deal with a draft of mine. Learn by his example: that’s what you get for making the offer to read one of my piles of garbage out the gate!

2) “The Lifeboat” got mixed reactions over on the “Baen’s Universe” forums. Not sure if I’ll sink time into the revision. As much as people have enjoyed it, it’d take some real time to bring it up to standard. That, and something makes me think I’ve somehow swapped drafts somewhere along the way, as the version I posted doesn’t seem as strong as the one I remember. If I can find what I suspect to be the actual final revision, I think I’ll throw it into the wild again.

3) No acceptances or rejections this week. We’re into April, and my goal to have ten sales this year is looking harder and harder to reach. Oh well. At least a lot of stuff is due for answers in May.

Chalk up another first draft finished. “Spired” is done. Might keep that name, might not.

I made good on my threats to resubmit “The Lifeboat” and “Whispers of the Future” on Sunday.

Every CompUSA in Georgia is closing. Can anyone tell me how CompUSA expects to clear out their inventory selling items at 30% discount when they’re already 120% off? I found it amusing that the chain still doesn’t see why they’re losing business to the e-tailers. Even liquidating their store, they’re overpriced.

A similar phenomenon will eventually apply to writers, and those that adapt will be the pixel-stained, technopeasant wretches making good off the new business model, while those that stick to the old methods might do well in a niche market…until their customer base finds better deals. Just ask CompUSA.

We will all be affected, and we must adapt. This isn’t a question of personal preference or taste. It’s a question of survival.

Just a quick round-up of what happened this week:

1) Personal Rejection with tasty feedback on “Whispers of the Future”, Clarkesworld Magazine.
2) Very favorable “love it but it’s just not what we publish” rejection on “The Lifeboat” from Electric Velocipede.
3) The second draft of “Eee”, and the last tale I’ll run through critters, got a whopping thirty-seven crits, which I’m told is a massive number for there, with hugely positive feedback. The final draft is under consideration at Darker Matter as we speak. Hopefully, it’s sufficient to meet their tastes. Thanks again to everyone on critters who looked at it.

This weekend I:

1) Will re-submit “Whispers of the Future” and “The Lifeboat”.
2) Will likely edit and submit “Days of Green, Days of Gray”, possibly to a young adult market.
3) Will continue “Spired”, my latest short story which has been mesmerizingly enjoyable to write. That’s a good sign; usually means the story will turn out great.

Well, the site is finally back in good shape.  Thank God.  I will never again be caught that unprepared for a site outage.

The only thing still missing is links to other authors’ sites.  Don’t worry — if you’re one of the folks I’ve normally linked too, I will have you set back up soon.  Please also note the presence of the “Plugs” page.  If you have a banner you’d like there, and I’m familiar with you or your material, just send me some mail and I’ll be happy to slap it in my list.

Writing Update:

“Eee” is getting extremely positive feedback over on critters.  The majority of the readers have actually come back with things like “I had to really dig to find something wrong with this”, or “Good God, send this off to Analog, Asimov’s, somebody.”

It’s just the ego-boost I’ve needed after the spate of rejections lately.  Here’s the kicker: I’d actually edited that draft further and sent off the final draft to the wild, so these people are commenting to such a positive degree on my second-draft, and not my final draft.

The challenge here is still going over the story objectively, and not letting my own head get swollen over the matter.  Arrogance will kill an author’s career surer than anything else in this business; it is egotistical sepuku, sans the honorable slant.

This is the last tale I’ll probably send through critters.  I’ve enjoyed my time there, but I’m ready to move up a level in intensity.  I need even tougher critics.  Critters has helped me out to a huge degree, and if you’re a new writer, I highly recommend it to you:

http://critters.org

Stay tuned.

The site is coming back to life, slowly but surely, folks. Won’t be long now before you’ll have to put up with me much more regularly!

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Update: Two rejections this week, one from Clarkesworld in which the editor wrote a very helpful, formal reply…always appreciated when that happens. I’ll try them again later with some higher quality. The other was from Heliotrope, not two days after I sent them “The Encroacher”.Experience has taught me that usually means the length wasn’t what they needed to fill print, or they wanted pieces of a particular style for an issue, or what not. On the other hand, they might have read it and hated it, which is always possible. I shot it off elsewhere. Best way to zen through a rejection.Stay tuned.