Update: Bumps in the Road... · 10:54pm Nov 11th, 2023
Hey folks! Despite that ominous title, I'm here to let y'all know that I think the metaphorical "bumps" are behind me, and I should be able to get some more stuff out soon. Including the most recent thing I've previewed, which I cannot give a release date for yet, but I believe will be ready before the end of the year. At least, that's the hope. 
(Also, thank you so much for all the enthusiasm about it. I hope it's something you'll all love!)
I intended to get a story or two more from reader suggestions as part of the Suggest A Story September event and be closer to the Turing Test story, but it was those bumps in the road I mentioned in the title that ended up delaying things.
One of them was basic: I got pretty sick and took over a week to recover, and it's hard to create anything when you're coughing your lungs out and stemming a veritable tsunami of snot coming out of your nostrils. Not fun. 
The other one was more personal, and I'll avoid going into details, but the long and short of it is that I showed some fellow writers one of the two big projects I've been working on and... it didn't go over well. I'd had misgivings, but I wasn't prepared for something I'd written 50k words of to be torn apart quite so viciously...
Not that I blame my friends and colleagues for their brutal honesty. I asked, and I received. Still, it was enough to shake my confidence and put me in... "a funk." Followed by that nasty illness I just mentioned.
Still, the thing about scathing criticism is that you can either shake your head in denial, crumble in defeat, or you can glean what you can from it, grow from it, and sometimes create something wonderful from it. The Iron Horse: Everything's Better With Robots! became a better story because of criticism and feedback, and I would be a fool to completely disregard the wise words of authors I respect, and so I will tear down what I worked so hard to build, repurpose the parts that worked, and build back stronger and better than before.
All of this is a long, roundabout way to say I'm here to apologize and explain that I will be coming out with more stuff soon. I was on a good run there and intend to get right back on that horse - or on those horsewords, as it were - and bring some more stories to you all fairly soon.
Sorry for the delay, all you lovely readers out there, and I hope you enjoy what's coming. 
Hopefully the criticism was more constructive than destructive.
5754576
It was. It was just hard to hear.
Be careful with taking first opinions. Even people we respect can have strange tastes and biases. Get a range of opinions from different groups, and keep the advice they have in common.
I hope you don't get burnt out. Rewriting 50k words is not fun, and I know other authors here who wanted to rewrite their story, then gets demotivated. Be careful!
Well, you're not dead, that something at least.
5754583
That is good advice, and some of the comments I got were a result of them not really "getting it."
But the core points were valid, and I wasn't entirely happy with how things were going anyway, so I think I've got a good idea of what to take away from the feedback I got. I do appreciate the concern and advice, of course, and as I go forward, I intend to seek more feedback.
5754587
No, it isn't fun to rewrite that much, but I was hitting a wall anyway, and having a more concrete plan might actually be pretty invigorating! So we'll see where that goes.
5754588
Er... nope, still got all those biological processes humming along! Still alive and kickin'!
Oh, I'm sorry you were so sick.
And about the writing difficulties.
Good luck! :)
5754845
Thanks for your sympathies. But I'm better now. And writing is happening!
5754877
:)