Jade Park has tagged me in her response to the 5 writing strengths Meme, where writers list five things that they know are their writing strengths. A few years ago, this might have been much harder for me. Drafting was a lot like shooting a rifle off into the dark, trying to hit things. As one of my writer-heroes, Maureen McHugh, pointed out when I talked to her one-on-one in Seattle, I couldn’t see what I could do better and was just kind of stuck, with nothing actually improving in my writing and no sense of why, or how I …

Whew! I finally got some proofreading done. I’m now about to send four five stories out. Here are the titles (with the original titles included for those who have read or critted them in the past): “Cai and Her Ten Thousand Husbands” (originally “The Crystal Methuselah,” 2006) “Iblis’ Devotion”(originally “Iblis’ Desire,” 2006) “Lester Young and the Jupiter’s Moons’ Blues”(first draft Clarion West 2006 Week 6, same title) “Solvjaynghi’s Christmas Wish” (originally, long ago, “The Plea From Factory Unit #5”, ca. 2002) “Empty of Words, the Page” (originally”Professor Whitney’s Resignation,” ca. 2000) Tonight I’ll be entering the edits for two one …

Anyone have a good site or book to recommend me? I need a little more background than I have for a story idea (and just knowing more would be nice anyhow, even if the story doesn’t pan out). Thanks!