Well.

I got a note from the editors of the pirate anthology today. Basically, they liked the story, but want me to make a whole lot of changes. Right now, I am completely logical and objective about them, and after I post this I'm going to start printing and hacking and changing. However, when I first read the comments, I freaked out. A lot of them were "too repetitive" and "show me, don't tell me" and "bad pronoun usage here" type things, and my writing-esteem hit an all-time low. I worked hard on that story, filtered it through several different readers, and I thought it was pretty damn good. Then I read the comments the editors gave it and all I saw was "you suck, Swails, and don't you forget it." Obviously, that's not what the editors said--they liked the story enough to work with me on it and if I make some changes it's got a good shot at being in the anthology--but that's what I heard my inner critic say. I was in a miserable mood for a half-hour, then Ken made me go for a two mile jog with him. After the run, a shower and dinner, my frame of mind has improved and I'm ready to tackle the rewrite. What makes me think I'm so perfect? Of course it's gonna need work. These editors have published dozens of books between them--they know what the hell they're talking about. Enough blogging--time to edit.