It never freakin' fails.  The *interesting* threads always seem to 
happen when I miss a day or two on the list.

My take on the issue?  Leave yourself out of the story, if you want 
to be taken seriously, especially by non-fanfic-writers.  Fanfic with 
the author in it tends to be laughed at by the outside world.  In 
Trek fiction, such stories are derisively termed "Lt. Mary Sue" 
stories.

If you feel the urge to put yourself into a story do the following:
Replace yourself with an identical character with a different name.  
Ask yourself: is the story still interesting?  If not, drop it.  If 
so, write it, *but with the different name*!  I did this with the 
first story I wrote.

There are exceptions:

-- Goofy spam stories with lots of in-jokes work well with authors as 
characters.
-- Putting yourself in the story *as the writer*.  I did that with a 
Star Trek parody, way back when.  At the end, Gene Roddenberry talks 
to me while I reply through the stage directions.  He then attacks me
and my dying scream stretches into my .sig.  :-)

------RM