Might as well send one out.

I have some bad news — for months I’ve had, in the background of my mind, held-out hope that a tale of mine, “Todd Elrin and the Forever Reset”, was going to get accepted at Baen’s Universe, which had the story in final review status.

It was not to be.

I could whine and moan about my feelings about this, but you’re readers and editors out there, and my feelings have as much relevance as a single fry out of your last extra value meal. In other words, you wouldn’t miss them.

So, in short: it was a story with an upbeat message that I would have popped a cork on a wine bottle just for seeing it in a pro market at the absolute perfect time for it to be published, not to mention marking my first pro sale, but it just didn’t happen. Okay, so there’s my one-line whine. Now back to business.

I’m lucky to have dealt with such an excellent editorial staff. It was an honor just making it into such consideration. I’ll be back to that mag’s slush before they can say slurpee.

In other updates, the rest of my subs are pretty quiet lately. Just waiting on responses.

I have surgery next week, which is going to give me a solid two weeks to work on yet another story with yet another message, and this one is — here I come.

This is the big splash you’ll hopefully be drenched in this fall.

Stay tuned.

And it’s time to look back on the last. Overall, disappointing, honestly. I think my quality of work has gone up, but when I look back over 2008, it was a dismal year for publication creds. Only five sales. Eep.

There were some other perks this year — I had a ton more fiction in audio, I feel like I expanded meager word of mouth about my work, and I made some great new friends in the biz and otherwise. To top it off, I had stories hit pro-level editor’s desks on two separate occasions, and at some frakkin’ major markets. As in, passed first round of slush into the finals. One of them is still there, and I’m still holding out hope on it.

But I’m still disappointed.

This is usually the point in a writer’s blog where they list all the killer things they’ll do over the next year. I’m not going to. Nothing sabotages an effort more than framing it in the context of a New Year’s resolution.

Let me just say this — I’m going to work towards putting a very special project in the wild, and I’m going to work on improving my craft. This will be the year that sees me writing only what absolutely grabs me and refuses to let me go. No longer will I chase half-motivated ideas. It is like plucking unripened fruit. You can call it fruit, but it’s still sour. My best-received work has been that which kicked down my door in the middle of the night and made me type it up at gunpoint. That’s what I’m sticking with.

Notice I said “best-received”. You readers and listeners are my barometer for my craft. Thank you so much for being so encouraging and at times so constructive over the past year. I ask you to please continue following my work over the next year, send some of that priceless feedback (no matter the nature) my way. Have a fantastic New Year. God bless.

Stay tuned.