I am so embarassed about leaving out that second infinitive.

ita would hurt me for it. I am sure she would.

ita would hurt me for it. I am sure she would.

She can't. She's too busy cluesticking the original love of my life in the novel I'm working on. You're safe, Gus.

Aw, you'll disappoint him now.

I do not pine for punishment from ita, erikaj. I am not into that.

Wipe that "Uh, huh" off your pretty visage. I am not into that.

Right, sure. Although I'm disinclined to break your balls since you consider my visage pretty...total battle between the snarkmaster and the fiend for compliments. So conflicted!And since this conflict plays out at the desk all the time? On topic, too.ETA: The feedback skel usually wins...this particular time? I have a weremonkey on my back, I think.

I've done something I think is fairly important for me--cleaned out a bunch of the writing manuals I've been collecting. For the longest time I've thought, "One of these books holds the key." I'm now at the point where I think, "Maybe this one has a couple of good reminders I can keep handy."

Of sixteen books, I'm completely getting rid of four (didactic and repeating each other), two I'm keeping for about five pages each with useful ideas (I'm contemplating writing up those ideas in a separate notebook, then getting rid of the books), and one I'm keeping because his advice is fairly completely useful to me (Lawrence Block's "Telling Lies for Fun & Profit.")

Some I'm keeping just because I love the way they're written: Stephen King and Anne Fadiman and Ray Bradbury. Also Anne Wingate's Howdunit book, "Scene of the Crime." The stories of when she worked for a small Georgia town's CSI unit are wonderful.

Anybody interested in some generic writer's guides? "The Weekend Novelist", "The Weekend Novelist Writes a Mystery," "How to Write a Damn Good Novel," and "Get That Novel Started".

connie, goodonya.

I spent the evening - once I'd realised I needed one beta WIP editor who knew how "R&RNF" ends - having an incredible hash-it-down whip-it-up session with my amazing husband. I now have all the details - timing of who was what where, why the murder happened when and precisely where it did, and what one of my two protagonists - the one who isn't onstage in front of a packed house at Madison Square Garden at the time - was doing when it all went down.

I'm getting a mess of memories back, so like connie, in the major steps zone.

As of this evening, the book has nearly 25,000 words, and is 122 pages in length.

I began this last Thursday, and took last Saturday off. Nine days of work.

This one wants out. And yes, some of it is so painful to do, I keep thinking I ought to change my name to Hypatia.

Victor, insent.(He's been in here before, right? Just not lately.) Connie, if you still have the Weekend Novelist Mystery one, I've been curious about it...I promise,Deb, not to take it up like a cult.

Dumb question: is "mid twenties" (when talking about someone's age) hyphenated or not?

I think so, Anne.