Is anything different?

Now that I've had a speculative-fiction story accepted for publication, that is? Yes. Yes, it is. I no longer fear quite so badly that I'm just fooling myself about being able to write.

Family and friends (particularly Clarion buddies) have been very congratulatory, and not one of them has acted surprised that I actually got a story accepted.

Work on the current story, however, is proceeding slowly. A title change is helping the focus of the story a bit, and I'm finding the premise really fun and quite amusing. But, oh, how draining it is to come up with a plot that's even a little bit not-what-everyone-will-be-expecting....