I considered the advice on my story and I reworked the ‘moment of truth’, in “Alchemy”, and brushed up the differentiation between two of the protagonists. I recognized that a reader, who was not me, could easily conflate the two characters in some places. I hope a judicious introduction of a few attributions cleaned it up. It is so close to being publishable in a topflight place. We’ll see. I submitted it and “Junior” (which I also cleaned up at its end) to quality, but challenging (read: high rejection %) markets.

I got the shingles two weeks ago. We had good friends visit, Thanksgiving, Alabama v. Auburn. My wife had the flu and now she has chicken pox (caused by my shingles), and Alabama v. Florida was today.

I’ve thought about my story and I have idea to do a ‘take’ on an old speculative fiction standard. I’ve read a little Lovecraft, a little Harlan Ellison, and have started Plotting and Writing Suspense fiction by Patricia Highsmith (the Ripley stories). Must write.