Light and rain

A gorgeous, strangely warm November day. In the evening, the reddened leaves above our neighborhood wove an illusion of lavender light. Two items of note. First, the manuscript of "Love & Winter," returned with a form rejection from a major magazine (disappointing, as it's a tale that I thought deserved some positive comment, even in rejection). But second, a surprise via UPS at dinnertime: a contributor's copy of the full, 4-volume edition of Books and Beyond: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of New American Reading, which includes the essay on sword-and-sorcery with which Howard Andrew Jones generously asked me to assist so many months ago.

One will simply have to imagine the expression on my face when I discovered the set retails for $400.

I'm reminded that people, a group that includes most writers, need both success and failure to grow and to empathize with others, just as simply as plants need both sunlight and rain. Some days, it seems, bring both ...