Well, yesterday's post certainly generated some email, all of it very encouraging and inspiring.

From Steven: "Well, don't get too discouraged by Gardner--in Dozois-speak not being 'ready' means you couldn't sell a story to Asimov's, and there are tons of pro writers who have never sold a story to Asimov's. When you came into Clarion, you couldn't sell a story to Asimov's."

From Alan: "Remember, getting the bad news, digesting it, and overcoming it is the point of the exercise. If all the feedback was praise, there'd be no point in the workshop."

And from my mom: "My car is getting a new driver's side front axle, and another new passenger side wheel bearing."

* * * * *

So, I had my story critiqued yesterday. I kept my head down and wrote a lot. When it came around to Gardner, he went on for about 30 minutes and my hand was getting cramped as I was trying to get down all that was said. But yesterday's critiques certainly were a slap in the face and a dose of reality. We'd been pretty thorough about critiques before, but now we're getting feedback from a man with a checkbook, and a man who is pretty much at the top of the heap editor-wise. So, it was a very thorough critique. Basically I need to change the entire focus of the story. (No problem!) Afterwards I went to the bathroom and allowed myself about twelve seconds of sniffling.

But my conference with him yesterday afternoon went much better, ego-wise. Gardner basically said that if I keep at it and remained determined (my term is "stubborn bitch"), that I'll start selling regularly. That was very cool to hear and a bit of a relief after the morning's critique. So then I went back to my floor and allowed myself twelve more seconds of sniffling.

* * * * *

And I'm turning in my seventh story today, titled "Lifespan." I finished it about 2am this morning, and then while I was in the shower this morning, I realized that I'd managed to completely omit anything that said where the story was taking place. ARGG!

Well tough. It's getting turned in.