Remember a bit back when I talked about the handful – maybe a few dozen? – #SixWeekSpec submissions that didn’t make the Top Ten but deserved an email from me because they were some measure of quality and caught my attention in one way or another?

Yeah, those aren’t going to happen. I’m sorry. It’s a fail on my part in no uncertain terms. I really wanted to find the time to write all these little encouraging sentiments, and this weekend I realized there’s no chance that time will be found. So I’m not going to do any of them.

Here’s what I will say: getting down to ten was more difficult than I thought it would be, and all in all there were around 40 entries that got some kind of serious consideration (including the Selected Ten). And at that point it came down to basic gut instinct. And while I picked the exact Ten I wanted, I feel guilty having to leave some of them out. But that’s how this shit works. And life! Life works that too. With the shit and everything. Sometimes.

I apologize. I know how terrific good feedback can feel and how buoying it can be to the spirit. Hell, it was buoying MY spirit just thinking about connecting with many of you. Though it might not seem so, I enjoy being encouraging. And this was a good opportunity for that. Anyway, if it makes you feel any better, I am a total crapface, as I overpromised and underdelivered, and there’s nothing in the world I hate doing more than that. And do you really want accolades from a crapface? No. You don’t. They’re meaningless. Trust me, as a crapface, on this very important point.

OK, so there’s that. In other news, if you’re going to start writing tomorrow, you are – as I believe the youthful parlance goes – “seriously bitching”. Go get it.