Editor's notes: Simplicity

I am always  amazed at the simplicity of the human mind. Or should I say the simple minded. Why do we need labels to determine what is good or bad or best?

A recent writers' group discussion that sucked me in had to do specifically with this issue. The vast majority of writers took the stance that if a story or author appeared in a 'best of' anthology well they are considered the best and damn the rest.

We all know that many best of anthologies are a poor man's award and awards are the arbiter of talent.

Just ask Cary Grant and Jerry Lee Lewis. And look at all those book awards that Lovecraft won.

We all like to win awards. They are nice. But arbitrary and certainly not the only measure. After all Kanye West has 21 Grammys and Pink Floyd 1. Does that mean Kanye is a more influential and greater music talent than the Floyd?

Ah, the new math.....

Interesting Numbers

Besides the 38 inches of snow that fell here between Friday and Saturday; as well as the 5 foot snow drifts etc.; I came across some interesting numbers that have been trending for the last six months. Many of you who feel the need to practice this torture called writing and submissions are aware of the website DUOTROPE. It is a writers' website where we hopefuls can search and find the next crushing rejection. Free until the beginning of 2013 the site does publish a monthly state of the state of publishing. In the last 30 days 177 markets have re-opened! Hooray!!! BUT 166 others have temporarily closed and an additional 114 are offically dead leaving a net loss of 103. On this day before the night that THE WALKING DEAD return, and I don't mean the state of music to be celebrated via the Grammys (Go MEGADETH), the downward trend of markets has been steady. As writers we need to plug away and utilize every potential media we can. Like the dead who walk that we write about, we are not quite finished yet.