December

Wow, December flew by in a flash! I've been neglecting my blog. Shame on me.

I received my copy of the anthology yesterday and I sat down and read every story. I needed a day of R&R so it arrived at precisely the right time. It felt wonderful to be holding a book in my hands that contained one of MY stories. I read Devil's Breath again, but it didn't feel like reading a story because I'm (obviously) too close to it. It's still too fresh in my writer's mind for me to have any perspective.

On Thursday, I received a very nice rejection letter from Story Quarterly. It's time to put "Not Your Average Joe" aside for a while - let Joe sit until I can look at him objectively and figure out why he didn't win anything more than finalist status in the Lunch Hour Stories contest.

This December, I enjoyed time with family and friends. I didn't hover over my keyboard. My ISP helped: we've had intermittent connectivity problems for months and in December we rarely had any internet access. But stepping away from my story was good for my family, for me, and for my characters. Guess what they did while I was making merry? They GREW! Isn't that amazing? I'm so proud of them. Now they're ready to pounce back onto the page.