this is my journal ... i write it as i go ... it has typos ... it's not perfect ... but then ... neither am i


Wherein we check on the accuracy of SwamiRon Kenobi
December 31, 1998
6:40 a.m.
 
 
     The year is very old. A coat of snow lays on the ground this morning--ironic that the first snow of the season here comes on the last day of the year.

Brigid stood up last night and shined her flashlight out at the snow as it began to fall. She was so excited to show me the way it was sticking to the ground and how far out her light would reach. She had me turn out the light in her room so we could see it better, and she made me look out where the bigger flakes glimmered silver in the light of the streetlamp across the street and catty-corner from our house.

     The first thing I thought was that now the driveway would need shoveling for sure.


        


     Now we pretty much know how 1998 was.

     Seeing that I made a few predictions last year, I thought this seemed to be the appropriate time to see how I did.

     
PredictionResult
1) A writer I know will place herself on the preliminary Nebula ballot.
1997 ballot -- Lisa Silverthorne, "The Sound of Angels"
1998 ballot -- Mary Soon Lee, "Monstrosity"
(There's others I know, too. But these are the ones that fit the spirit of the prediction)
2) I'll submit a lot of stories.
This one was easy to make
3) I'll sell more stories this year than any other . . .
True, kind of. I sold four tales profesionally, plus I had two items appear in Pamela Rice Hahn's "Blue Rose Bouquet" and another in the ill-fated Science Fiction Project. I think I sold four stories in 1995 also, but two of those did not make it to print for various nefarious reasons! So, I'll give myself this one on a cople of technicalities.
4) . . . yet I'll still near the 400 rejection barrier
I'll cross the 400 mark in January or February.
5) I'll bring two novels that I am very proud of to market
I only made it to one, here. Glamour of the God-Touched sits on an Ace editor's desk as we speak.
6) Other new writers will make great strides in their careers
Lisa Silverthorne, Christopher Rowe, Kurt Roth, Mary Soon Lee, Vera Nazarian (in no particular order) -- and I know I'm missing several.
7) I'll try not to be jealous!
I did good at trying!
8) Worldcon will be great fun
So true.
9) I'll come through the year knowing a lot more than I do now

Even more true.


     So, overall, I think I did pretty good in the prediction department. Yeah, I know, some of them were gimmies--but we gotta have a few easy ones, eh?

     If tomorrow breaks out right, I'll have a new set of predictions here. If not, well, they can wait a little, I suppose.


        


     Everything is very comfortable here in the Collins household as we wait for 1999 to arrive. Lisa's done with her last manuscripat of the year. I've got a pair of stories ready for her. Brigid is on plan with what little homework she has--her plan is to do a page a day rahter than hunker down and get it all finished. Not how I would do it, but it's working for her.

     We're going to go out for breakfast. I can already predict the orders, waffles for Brigid, Country breakfast for Lisa, and an omlette for me.

     Tonight we'll play games together and pretend it's midnight when it's really only 9:30. Then we'll go to bed so we can get up and start 1999 off right.


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