Crit.

The story I was so nervous about has had four crits. There's a "thing" in the story, and I didn't explain what it was or where it came from, because I want people to read into it -- to come up with their own explanations, put their own pasts into it.

Everyone has called it creepy and well-written. Three people seem to have found the ending frustrating, because of the lack of information. One person didn't. Two people decided that the thing was cancer -- which wasn't the story I'd come up for it in my own head, but that was okay.

What a roller-coaster, though. It's been painful to read the reviews, both good and bad. One minute I'm brilliant; the next I'm an egotistical @#$%-up who's never going to pull this off.

I'm going to screw around with it a bit more today, beg Lee to read it, and send it off in the next week or so. I'm going to shoot for The Third Alternative first, I think.