I am preparing my poetry book manuscript once again to make the rounds of submissions to poetry manuscript contests, including the Bakeless, the Yale Younger Poets, Winnow Press, and a couple of others. Last year, in my first attempt, I was a finalist at Winnow Press and a semifinalist at the Bakeless – and I’ve spent a year (hopefully) making the manuscript better, so I am crossing my fingers for a win this year. I’ve also gotten a bunch of “positive” rejection slips from journals lately – i.e. – “This was close!” “We really liked such and such a poem, and it made it past three rounds of editors, but in the end we didn’t go with it” etc. These are odd to receive, because you’re happy your poems were read – and weren’t spit on – but…in the end it’s still a “no.”

Parallel to this, I have been writing what feels like non-stop articles about WS-Security and WS-Policy. This is only exhausting because WS-Security has changed so much from when I first learned about it a couple of years ago – in fact, it seems to change specifically around the dates I have to turn each article in. I was really excited about this spec when I first learned about it – although it wasn’t perfect, it had real potential – and I still think it is something people should be considering when they think about implementing web services systems for themselves and their businesses. But I’m starting to get that burnt out feeling, like Security? Noooo….

Did I also mention that the Sp1 of the WSE is already out? Did I mention I haven’t updated my code download for this SP yet? And I have a month of family visitors, so I won’t get to it til September, probably.

Thanks to all you guys who have been writing in with positive comments on my site, my book, and my articles. It makes it all worth while. I mean it. And, to ask a favor of strangers, (always dangerous) if you did read my book and liked it, please please please put up a review on Amazon…I know those things make a difference.