The Dangers of Nyquil

After 4 days, Clearing was jettisoned by Clarkesworld with a form letter...yesterday, I submitted a query letter for Clearing to Abandoned Towers, got a positive response, submitted the story, and just now received another positive response from the sub editor, saying it "seemed well written and put together with nice clean dialogue" and has passed it on to the editorial group...not an acceptance, but I'll take it, even with the word seemed attached. That makes me happy.

I'm sick yet again, and had to choke back some Nyquil, mostly so that my poor wife can sleep through my gasping and choking and coughing. Since Sunday, I have been thinking through a story that really sounds fun (I'll share more as I progress, but kind of a what-if story around the proposed nuclear waste dump in Yucca Mountain just north of Vegas)...but, as I dig more into this story, it has to be a full length thing--at least 50-70k words. Which is daunting, as I'm yet to complete anything that long. Last night, in a diphenhydramine daze, I dreamt chunks of the storyline, which makes me even more excited to work on it. I don't want to blow this, so I'm going to take a few more days of outlining and character development before I start work.