I just finished reading Kenn Gannon's latest offering in the Swarm Cycle. Yes I know he says I contributed editing help to it, but I read it here too... Anyway reading that story and thinking of others got me to thinking about what my own fiction may be missing. I decided that the most glaring failure in my writing to date is the lack of a detestable villain.
Of course I know that the lack of a detestable villain is not the only difficulty I have with regard to producing compelling fiction. Just that it is one of the issues.
On my personal life... Lots, and lots of overtime. Not as much as some people who have written me are getting, but it does leave me a bit hammered, so not much is getting done with regard to writing.