This month's issue of Clarkesworld Magazine includes one of the stories I recommended from the slush pile: "Teaching Bigfoot to Read", by Geoffrey W. Cole. I don't have the power to make the decisions, but it feels good to have recommended a story that made it into the magazine. :)

I swear that I'm really going to write about things I've learned from reading submissions, and having to justify either recommending or rejecting them. That last part is the brilliant thing about being a slush reader. I have to be able to articulate what's wrong with unrecommendable stories, and when I'm dealing with competently-written ones that just don't sparkle, it's a learning experience to explain the problems I see.