Seriously, did I not tell you this magazine was amazing? Want some proof? Other than the fact that the folks at MD decided to take my tale “Paston, Kentucky”, they have some truly wicked content and one hell of a cover lined up for Issue 1:

Murky Depths. Clicky-clicky and drool.

I can’t tell you what a rush it is to see my name there amongst those other writers. I feel like the little kid that’s finally been invited to the adults’ table for Thanksgiving. That big turkey leg is all mine.

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!

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.