Today began the home stretch here at Clarion: the sixth and final week. Like I said before, I absolutely love this creatively-charged environment and the proximity to so many like minds, but I'm so tired I can barely think straight anymore. I'm finding it more difficult to make comments on stories, not because the stories are perfect, but because that critiquing part of my brain is squoze just about dry. I'm glad that I'm taking a week off after I get back to just rest and not do much.

I had my meeting with Tim and Karen yesterday, and they went over all seven of my stories, the four I've written here and the three submission stories. They gave me some good advice and a few ego boosts. Apparently, I do settings and realism very well. (The first part of "The Valley of the All-Father" is pure realism, and everyone seemed to like that part.) They said they'd like to see me heading toward the style in "One", which was much more surrealistic and weird. I need to pump up the weird so that it feels right when it's side by side with the real. And they both liked "Shiny Diner Blues" quite a bit, which surprised me, since it's not really one of my favorites. They recommended I read The Last Coin by James Blaylock, not because it would help my writing, but because they thought I would really enjoy it.

I just woke from a nice two-hour nap and must try to shake the cobwebs from my brain. I started a new story yesterday, called "King of the Traffic Lights", and will attempt to squeak it in this week.

People are starting to get sick here, with colds and such. I'm starting to sniff and sneeze more than usual, and am slightly unnerved at this.