Well, the critique group went well. The writers in this group are a talented lot (they are all Clarion grads who have been writing for years) and the critiques are informative and thorough, not to mention that they are all just great people. I'm looking forward to working with these folks.

And, AND, they led me to an writing epiphany. My wife played a major part, too, as I spoke with her about it. It seems that I'm so afraid of talking down to my reader that I have a bad habit of being vague. I've been so disgusted by Hollywood's "Say it three times or the audience won't get it," rule that I don't write out the important items strongly enough to inform the reader as fully as I should.

I've always tried not to beat them over the head and instead ended up blowing right by them instead.

It's funny. The story I just sold to Neverary magazine I considered to be cotton candy. It's a fun little story, no brainwork really involved to read it, and it sold to the second market to which I sent it.

The deeper I think my stories are, the more rejections they seem to pile up. Hmmm. There's wisdom somewhere in there.

So, I'm just going to concentrate on telling stories from here on out. Forget the deep, meaningful stuff and go for the story. Let's see how that turns out for a change.

Or, to paraphrase the Bard, "Less art, more matter!"

Joseph Haines, signing off from The Edge of the Abyss.