Progress Report, in which I tell you what you already know

This is always an interesting experience for me.  Basically, my job is to pick what I consider to be the top three entries (and I’m not able to vote for my own story, not that I would).  It’s kind of a miniature slush pile, and I get to play editor for a few days.  I get to be the guy making the tough decisions.  And make no mistake–those calls can be really hard sometimes.  A few of the stories didn’t do anything for me, one or two really stood out, but the bulk of them fell somewhere in between.  It was quite difficult for me to pick a third place entry; they were all so tightly bunched.  Eventually, I just bit the bullet and went with my gut.  I imagine editors have to do this sort of thing a lot.  They only have so many slots, and far too many stories vying to fill them.  The difference between the pieces that make the cut and those that don’t can be ridiculously thin–so much so that the decision often appears arbitrary.

It’s a wacky business, folks.  But I’m not telling you any news, I’m sure.

I also took a crack at my pile of returned mss, again working to get them back into circulation.  I shall make an effort over the next few weeks to get continue whittling at it. 

In Petra news, I’ve figured out roughly how much I need to do each week to finish the rewrite by the end of the year.  I’ve also busied myself with some renaming.  Names of characters and places either work for me or they don’t, and a couple of the names I’ve chosen just don’t.  I figure two characters and one locale need rechristening–an often maddening exercise, but one that needs to be done. 

Other than that, I’m back at page one, once again.  We all know how that one goes, don’t we?

One update for Write Club:  Talebones bounced “What Really Happened That Night.”  Patrick scribbled a note on the rejection:  “We did something relatively similar a few issues ago.”  Scooped again.  Drat the luck.  Response time, 2 1/2 months.