I am working on a new Phoenix story, and it made me think about a lesson I hope I have learned, thanks to a story that failed. As some of you know, I wrote a "Amanda Waller" story for the ret-con universe, and it got rejected as being in need of a total re-write. Later, I wrote my story "The Tears of the Phoenix", and as you can see if you look for it, it was accepted. So why the difference? Well, with the Amanda Waller story, I think I got myself thinking like a comic book writer, not a novelist. I concentrated on some visual images I thought "cool", and I think the story suffered for it. Whereas, "Tears" my focus was on the emotions. There is no "bad guy", no disaster, just two girls talking. But I think it worked because it came from my own heart. I took my grief, my confusion, and my hope, and had the characters bring those feelings to life. And judging from the response, I succeeded. So I am trying to keep that in mind as I write my new story.