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Okay, I am pretty close to the half way mark on Meredith Mackenzie and the Uruk Empire. Maybe even past it depending on how quickly the rest of this goes (I may need a short story to pad things out, but if that's the case, I have a couple of ideas that could turn into a series of shorts that will go quite nicely as backstory to the main plot).

I also did some revisions on Homefront. Not a lot, mind you, but then I did a lot of revising as I wrote the thing and I think it's pretty close to done. I need to get some fresh eyes to look at it and tell me if I'm smoking crack before I actually send it to a certain publisher who shall remain nameless (*cough* Baen books *cough*).

That said, I'm having one of my occassional crisises of faith. Anyone who knows me knows I have issues of the self confidence kind. Writing is the one thing I've always felt like I had a particular talent for, but writing is a skill, one that takes time to develope, and one I had to spend a lot of time developing. That means that, over the years, I've written some really bad stuff. Fortunately, most of it has vanished into the ether several hard drive formats ago, never to see the light of day. Some of it got reused and recycled and turned into what I hope is good work.

But the last few weeks, ever since I finished Homefront, but most especially ever since there was an incident with someone over on the bar getting her manuscript rejected, I've been having my doubts.

Am I good enough? Am I cut out for this? Will I be able to finish another book? Will I be able to write anything this good ever again? Will Jim like it enough to buy it? Will anyone other than Jim like it if he does buy it? Is it a complete incoherent mess that I'll never be able to unload without a huge rewrite?

Of course, considering what I'm doing with the new books is a much, much harder way to work, I'm even more worried about that.

So, here it is. Confession time. Us writers occasionally have moments of panick where we wonder if we're just fooling ourselves.

Someday, I'll look back at this, and I'll drink.

Oh look. It's someday.

Anybody want a shot?