Joe's drabble made me laugh and laugh.

I think I'll preen a bit nonetheless

And well you should! Good going!

Little lethal bits of malice

Loved loved loved this line. And you can always drabble whatever you like -- Teppy is most benevolent.

OK, memememe.

I finished the pass-page edits, typed up the two pages of mostly layout fixes, wrote the cover letter to my editor's assistant, and wrapped the entire pile up, ready for mailing back to St. Martin's. They wanted them by 1 June.

Such a nice feeling, being able to sit in front of my computer and take three days to do it instead of having to do it on a frickin' airplane.

That's wonderful, Deb. It must feel great to be done with room to spare.

Susan, it definitely does. And if I was worried about Ruth's edits (and I was, just a skosh, because it's a complex piece of history, that whole lead-up to the Cromwell years), worries are all gone. It's incredibly tight, and the few things that needed to be put back in for proper continuity totalled up to, like, three sentences. I had Ruth's permission to put back whatever I thought was needed, and I did, without even changing the page count.

Now I can buckle down and work on Cruel Sister. Since Ruth told Jenn that she "couldn't imagine not wanting my next book", I'm going to do my best to ignore the fact that I've essentially been holding my damned breath for five plus months, ignore the fact that I'm not likely to hear anything for yet a few more weeks (since BEA is imminent, and it's in NY this year), assume she's going to buy at least this one, and write the damned thing.

Depending on whether she offers on just one or on more than just one, I can also put some mental energy into considering what I want to do next, after this series is done - which I'm envisioning it being after the sixth book, at least right now.

All right, deb! Fantastic. You work so fast.

I've actually been slacking for weeks on this book, Liese. The whole being in limbo thing can lead to inertia.

I'm getting a LTE published in the local alternative weekly. I just wanted to give the writer, Amy Silverman, some feedback on her article on "Why Phoenix Has an Inferiority Complex" because I related to it so much. So now David Simon likes carrots will get a wider audience.

(beaming madly at internet wife)

Feedback may not make me sexy, but it seems to get me read. Although, to writers, sometimes there isn't much difference.

Feedback may not make me sexy, but it seems to get me read. Although, to writers, sometimes there isn't much difference.

You got that right. Nothing better than getting read.

Unless it's getting published in the first place, with accompanying cheque.