I think very little feedback is critique, since most people assume that by the time they're reading it, the story is finished and won't be revised.

Which is why we tend not to analyze in GWW.

Although stories are often revised, edited, polished and otherwise altered in response to feedback.

50 words too long or not, I love it!

Thanks! It was fun to write. Jack is my favorite viewpoint character ever, and I just suddenly pictured him in that situation and had to run with it.

That ruled, Susan. Really.

Susan, that is a delightful scene. Will you keep it for your book?

t preens

Cindy, it's tempting. But I'm afraid the whole "look what Captain Kincaid found in a dusty bookshop last time we were in Lisbon" scenario is a little too far-fetched. I did, however, save it in my random drabbles section of that novel's folder on my hard drive, just in case.

You could include an outtakes reel chapter of drabbles, in the 25th Anniversary Edition.

I vote that the idea that Jack is the sort of man who would buy books in a far-off place makes him look all the nummier. I love that scene! Lucky Anna, oh my.

I'm probably feeling far too flattered for my own good, but I kinda need it this week. I've been making a concerted effort to send out freelance queries, especially to custom publishers (they do magazines and other content for companies who don't do it in house--they hire lots of freelancers and pay well), I've applied to teach a class at my local community college, etc. And so far it's not that I've been rejected, it's just that I might as well be dropping my info into a black hole. And IME, with emailed queries/applications, no news is bad news. Generally either you hear back right away, or you'll get a "sorry, not interested" in six weeks or six months. So it's been kinda discouraging.

Okay, so this drabble actually has very little or nothing to do with "Under the Bed" except, well, containing the phrase. It's also not really fiction, which pretty much also breaks the rules of the challenge. It's also short. I don't care.

***
I've never been scared of snakes, or spiders, or monsters under the bed. I like the dark, and clowns are funny, and thunderstorms make me smile. The normal fears of a thousand men, a thousand women, a thousand children - they've never touched my secret dark places.

I'm only afraid of one thing, and it's not serial killers, or ghosts, or great white sharks.

Hi, my name is David, and I have phone fear.
***

P.S. I want deb back. If you're reading this, deb, please come back. Please?

So I'm still waiting to hear back from one of the contests I entered this summer. Today I get an email from the contest coordinator that makes it clear that results have been returned. I've heard nothing whatsoever. I know my entry was received in the first place, because the entry fee check cleared, but beyond that nada, zilch, zero. I figure there are three possibilities here:

1. My results and feedback are lost in the mail. (DAMN you, USPS!)

2. Mail is just inexplicably slow to Seattle for some reason. (Darn you to heck, USPS!)

3. I'm a finalist. (Well, you could've TOLD me.)

I'm betting on #1. It's just been that kind of week.