Writing's a mixture of good days, great days, bad days, and awful days. Today's just a plain old bad one. DRAGON OUTCAST didn't make the Locus list for December, despite the publisher doing some online advertising to give it a bit of a shove.

I know it did decently at the big chains and it'll earn out its nice, but modest, advance. I just hate to see the publisher spend money advertising me and then have it not pay off. It gives them no reason to advertise the next book. In fact, they have good reason not to, since you'd have to be a pretty foolish businessperson to pour money down the E.E. Knight rathole when they've got authors who get onto both Locus and the major media lists.

I'm starting to feel like I fill a gap in the publishing schedule between more successful authors. I can look in the mirror and proudly say I'm one of the most reliable placeholders out there!

If I'm sounding more discouraged than usual it's because I though OUTCAST a very good book, one of the best things I've done yet. Yet PW, Locus, Booklist -- no reviews from the usual suspects (of course it didn't help that the publisher didn't print advanced review copies). Actually, Locus has yet to review any of my books but I live in hope. You're in desperate straits when your keeping your fingers crossed that another positive Amazon review will pop up.

Anyway, I just have to soldier on, be happy for the good stuff that's happening with my books (my hardcover sales appear to be supporting a continuation of hardcover release, for example) and try to improve. It's kind of like getting first published: you try, you fail, hopefully you learn, you try some more, you fail some more, you learn some more. You work toward the day the try/fail cycle stops and try not to give into the temptation to just hang it up. I'll just tuck in my horns a little and cut back on the travel until I get a better feel for which direction my career his heading.

Oh, and fuck it, I need a drink. Scotch and the cats still like me. Well, the cats don't exactly like me, but I create warm spots to sleep in and keep the kibble coming, so I'm tolerated.