I just received the February edition of Locus magazine, and lo and behold Queen of Candesce has made their Recommended Reading list for 2007.  It's one of 28, as usual--a little over two dozen science fiction books that this industry mag recommends, out of approximately 250 published last year.

Of course this is great--but here's the thing:  every one of my novels has made this list.

My books regularly make various top-ten lists, but this list is important because it's some of the genre's chief reviewers and critics weighing in.  I believe, since we're up to five in a row, that I can sense a trend here.  And you'd think it would be a good sign--but nothing in publishing is easy to interpret.  I still feel like the best-kept secret in SF; I mean, if I'm so shit-hot, why is it that not a single one of my books has gone into a second printing?  If every one of my novels since the year 2000 has hit the top-ten recommendation lists, why do I still get invited to participate in convention panels for new and first-time authors?  Why am I not on the top-ten sales lists?

It could be I have a face only a reviewer could love.  --And mind you, I'm not complaining because, after all, I am being regularly published.  My fantasies of being a science fiction writer are getting indulged by the real world. 

Maybe, in the end, that's as good as it needs to get. 

. . .Naaaaaaw.  I still want that bestseller.