Also, Betsy inadvertantly earwormed me with "Boy For Sale" from Oliver!

Did you blow out your microwave, Aimee...or what happened?

Nothing, thank goodness. I only nuke it for 7 seconds.

I was getting worried they got lost in the mail somewhere. Glad you like!

I really do. I just looked at the date you mailed it, and it did take forever to get here. The postal service in Menlo Park sucks.

Am back from the 'burbs...got 2.5 hours of sleep last night (had to get up at 4AM to get to the airport!) and then went to work (though got there at 11AM and left at 5:30PM...I'm sure it looked bad, but it's not like I was getting anything done!!). Now am attempting to stay awake for a bit, and then go to bed early.

Nora and Tom's party sounds really fun!!

I'm going to miss Peter Jennings. Sigh.

Raq, I'm sorry the bastards have you over a barrel for the stupid DSL. Dang.

The strawberry mascarpone sorbet sounds really yummy.

Oh, and I like the idea of a buffista cookbook. I'd put in a couple cookie recipes!

Seems to me that you just answered yourself right there. The contests seem to make you doubt yourself and that doesn't seem productive.

Unless, of course, the contest results are revealing a flaw in my writing that somehow isn't revealed in ordinary critiquing. But AmyLiz is certainly the expert here, and I do write out-of-the-box, though not to the degree Diana Gabaldon does. So far I've only actually seen the scoresheets for two of the six contests I've entered, so I don't really know if there's a pattern. In one, all the judges gave me high scores and positive comments, but just not quite high enough to final. In another, I got mediocre scores and comments that amounted to, "You're a very strong writer, but I'm not so sure about this story. It's certainly not what you expect from a Regency, and maybe it's a little too dark."

But yeah, I'm thinking of just giving up on all of them except maybe the Golden Heart, because moving ahead of the Pros in the line to get editor/agent appointments at National, and not just the year you final but forever after, seems worth buying what amounts to a lottery ticket. Plus, I'm using it as an incentive to get the thing finished and at least somewhat edited by the deadline.

But yeah, I'm thinking of just giving up on all of them except maybe the Golden Heart,

Makes a LOT of sense to me, just because the payoff on the GH can be so big. (Not necessarily, though; the GH for Regency this year went to a woman who'd won it twice before, and yet she's still unsold.)

Be warned, though: As of this year, entries to the Golden Heart will get priority if the author also agrees to judge entries. (Get priority if they run out of slots, that is.) I expect this to lead to a flood of judges who can't set aside their own prejudices.

The postal service in Menlo Park sucks.

Could be the fact that I mailed it from way up here in the boonies, too. Anyway, enjoy! The disco nightlight was one of my favorites.

But AmyLiz is certainly the expert here

Well, that's relative. And I know for a fact there are lot of editors out there who are much more dedicated and, um, nicer than I was when I was being overworked into an early ulcer working.

I got a distinctly positive reply from actuarial student. Only issue is that I'm separated; but I strongly approve of the way she approached the issue. She asked if there's a chance of me getting back together with Bec, because she'd never get in the way of something like that.

Oh, and she's also threatening to psychoanalyse me. Foolish mortal. "So what school of psychoanalysis do you favour? Freud, Jung, maybe Lacan?" "...Lovecraft."

I expect this to lead to a flood of judges who can't set aside their own prejudices.

And this is different from current contest judges how? (she says with weary exasperation)

Though I may be as guilty of this as anyone. I'm capable of giving very high scores to stories that aren't my thing if they're well done--most of my perfect and near-perfect scores have been for frothily light Regencies, albeit not ones with glaring historical errors. But I'm easier on goal-motivation-conflict and harder on historical errors, misplaced commas, and asshole heroes than some judges because of where my priorities lie.

I do like that the GH just assigns an overall number. I hate when as a judge I'm forced to score something higher than it deserves because "hero" is just ten points on the 250-point scoresheet, or to mark down brilliant writing because it doesn't quite follow all the Rules of Romance Writing. And I like to hope my writing will do a bit better when it's not being exhaustively dissected. We'll see.