Susan, that is awesome! Much editing~ma to you.

Thanks, y'all.

I just finished typing everything in--it's 124,500 words using the page count estimate method, 112,711 using Word's counter. (A normal amount of disparity, especially for dialogue-dependent writers.) That's 498 pages in 12-point, 25-line-per-page Courier New.

I'm going to let it rest for a week--do some of the housecleaning I've been neglecting, read for fun, and maybe draw up an editing strategy--and dive back in sometime next week.

Go, Susan!

Excellent, Susan.

Well, my muse finally came through.

Playground

It’s all apartments, now. In 1961 it was our playground, although not designed as such. It started out as a sand quarry; we used it to dig around in and play running games. No one told us not to.

My brothers became intrepid excavators, mining the sandstone to build caves and tunnels. They took flattened out moving boxes and used them to shore up the walls and roofs.

Until we heard that two neighborhood boys had nearly suffocated in a cave-in. No one had to tell us to quit digging. They still didn’t put signs up; it was the ‘60s.

Susan! Congratulations!

Until we heard that two neighborhood boys had nearly suffocated in a cave-in. No one had to tell us to quit digging.

I had a great-uncle who died at 14, along with a friend, when a cave they built collapsed on them. so scary...

also, Congrats Susan!!! You deserve a break. And I'd love to someday ready your finished product.

New song lyrics! Nothing to do with caves.

Tell Me Again

Tell me again what I should believe
Right now, I feel I've been left out too long in the rain
Show me what you've got up that sleeve
Of birds on blue velvet
Oh god am I going insane
Windsurfing this pain
Just tell me again?

Tell me again how I'm strong, and I'm tough
Made me just perfect to quietly keep on the side
What a shame I was never enough
You couldn't leave her
you dragged me along for the ride
Destroying my pride
I kept it inside
come on, tell me again

I loved you once, I loved you then
My darling, my angel, the best of all men
We threw it away, what else can I say
Just say when - and tell me again.

Tell me again why I hold on so tight?
Why I can't leave us as history nicely alone
Why I wake up in tears in the night
Dreams of abandonment, friends being kind on the phone
I'm told - I'm not shown
The last birds have flown
Tell me
Tell me again.

I'm going over one of my Regency era CP's chapter of the month, and she has her characters thinking "Umm" and "Uhh" (in deep POV) on a regular basis.

Is it just me, or are those a bit modern and/or American-sounding? I don't use interjections like that in narrative, because I rarely use that particular form of deep POV (yet another romance trend I think is being overused these days, but that's fodder for another post). But when I need something like that for dialogue, I think it sounds more English/period to say "Ah" or "Er."

Anyway, am I being nitpicky, or is this worth bringing up?

Huh. I never thought about it. Of course most of the English novels I've read lately are pretty modern, too.