A few thoughts about "Rosetta" and "Home Cure"

First of all, I'd like to thank @meika for his enthusiastic (and gratis) plot suggestions for Rosetta. They're helpfully denoted with the #giveplot hashtag. I'll reprint them here, as they appeared on June 02, 2009 in the Twitterstream:

you've "killed off" the underling too early, suggest no status update in the lab for Dr Carlov

kidnap & chase plot, Dr Carlov makes off with macguffin, once he gets to it, lab lit for 1/3 story

DrCarlov is genius, works it out using special macguffin 2, 1/3 story thriller and last 1/3 space op

make Dr Carlov not-a-bloke? (the last tip is extra but it's yours now, it's free too)

Secondly, what was going on inside my head when I got stuck? There were a million ways that this story could go forward. I actually had an notion, but it was dull and uninspired. The idea of making the down-trodden underling into an unexpected villain is a plot twist that didn't occur to me. I had a mental image of how this story was set up, and when it ran into a corner, I couldn't shake off the preconceptions I'd brought to it. I was too rigid.

The idea of making him a closeted transvestite woman in addition to an underhanded secret evil genius... well, in short, why didn't I think of that?

Part of the issue here is being too wrapped up in the management of the forest, and not giving the trees room to grow. Too much big picture, not enough let-it-happen.

It's OK to make mistakes. It's better if you learn from them.

About "Home Cure"... based in part on the comments on that story, and based in part on how I feel about that piece, I've submitted this to the Editor Unleashed critiques page. Let's see how well it stands up the the harsh light of day, shall we?

I'm also going to leave my entry in the Flash Fiction 40 competition up after the judging, as an opportunity for critiques.