You know we’re off on a wild ride when I misspelled ‘down’ in the title, before tabbing to the text, and am posting after midnight so the date will be off, but here we go:

• I got my (forwarded) letter from WOTF today.  It congratulated me on my Honorable Mention for Fist of the Black Bird, which I’ve previously mentioned, and invited me to send a story in for the quarter ending Sep. 30th.  Which just reminded me that I’ve pretty much made the decision to not enter any more, and I’m now telling myself that I don’t mind the fact that I’m not walking away from it with a brilliant win but instead slinking out the back door.

 

• My Christmas story has been rejected.  I don’t mind this too much, as a letter from a communist elf was always a long shot, but of course a rejection is never a pick-me-up.  Perhaps I’ll post the letter here come Christmas…you can all get out your silver brain-protecting hats so you won’t be infected by communist sentiment.

 

• Remember that new PO scale I bought?  Well, it’s still not yet calibrated, let alone in use.  Why am I not sending more stories out?  I haven’t had a sale in an age, but I’m not likely to break that run if there aren’t any submitted!

 

• Okay, so maybe not such a long list of downers.  But when added to regular life happenings, these things were enough to give me some irritated and moppy moments today.  I’ve also been holding true to the writerly pledge of self-doubt, in which one no sooner hammers out a new chapter than one is convinced said chapter is so much drivel.

On the other hand, I’ve been exceeding my writing goals without doing backflips, and have revised the plot outline so it’s much more detailed and generally helpful.  I’ve also thought up a couple potential titles: Night Fire.  Dance with Shadows.  Dark Flame.  Hmmm.  Still thinking.

I spent some writing time (after meeting the word limit!) reading up on amnesia.  No, not for a main character, for a supporting and ‘imperiled’ character of significance.  After a cursory inspection I’ve decided that brain trauma is no fun to mess with, and I’m grateful my minor concussions/head bonks of the past were just that, minor.  But that won’t prevent my doing a brain swipe and removing all memory of today’s downers.  Thank goodness memory is flexible!

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