WFC: Day Three -- Now Waiting

Panel: David Morrell Interview (Stephen Jones, David Morrell)

I decided to attend this on a whim, just because Morrell's had some interesting things to say. And he did again, one of which I'm still thinking about: the idea that we (at least successful writers) focus on our dominant emotion. I wonder what mine is. It's probably depressing. (... maybe it IS depression.)

Panel: 2008 Awards Year Recommendations (David Hartwell, Charles N. Brown, Ellen Datlow, Jonathan Strahan, Alan Beatts (moderator))

I came out, not only with a Locus list of the best books in the genre, but with a number of other selections, and one thought that heartened me from Strahan: he thinks that the genre has been short on, and needs more of, "pure fantasy" short stories. (As opposed to urban / slipstream / magical realism, one assumes.)

But thinking about this scares me, too. I can feel my mental bar shifting. I don't want to just be published; will I feel like a failure if I don't make a best-first list out of the gate? Don't I already feel like one for still not having my name on the cover of a book? How idiotic is it that I feel like I should-ought-must slam into the top bar, or I might as well not try?