Behind Was Like Three Weeks Ago

I can no longer call where I am with the original submission pile to NOI 3 being behind. "Behind" was where I was when I made my last post on November 18th. At this point in time I have just over a dozen stories to still read before I've read every tale.

It's tough, because there are so many good submissions, and sometimes I'm re-reading a story before making a decision to either pass on it or keep it for final selection. Who would've thought that getting so many great submissions would be a curse?

I'm estimating that I should be through the original round of submissions and getting back to contributors with either a "sorry" or a "final round" response. I'm still estimating that for those folks who've I've already notified (or will notify soon) that their story is in the final selection round, I hope to be able to make the final decision of stories by the end of Feb 2006.