This must be my week of near misses. A while ago, I heard from another great journal that I'd made the cut, one of five finalists they were sending to their guest editor (whose work I really admire). Today: they loved the essay, but had room for only two and mine's not one of them.

This one's part of THE LUNATICS' BALL. I'm not sending out many of those, and I have mixed feelings about pubishing them. At this point I've had some good publications from the collection-in-progress, one Notable Essay among them. I love the encouragement of publication, but it might be better not to publish too much if I'm going to look for a publisher.

Rejections don't get any softer than this latest for my Bartleby-and-Wings of Desire-inspired story. They almost took it and just didn't have space. They called it "masterful." STORY magazine also loved it and sent a soft reject. At this point an acceptance would be nice.

Roster for my May 11 reading with Flash Fiction Forum in San Jose is up. I only know a couple of the readers, but it should be fun anyway. The Zoom picture they're using from an old reading has Steve and me peeking over the bottom in the middle.

Feeling the dearth off new material right now. Nothing to send for this year's Flash Flood. Not much out looking for homes. But I've been making progress on THE LUNATICS' BALL, so it's not like I'm not writing.