HA! Gus, I just spent two days dealing with the first pass copy edits on the current Haunted Ballads novel, "Cruel Sister".

From which there is a six-page section missing.

And a 7 April deadline.

And a copy editor who writes on frickin' post-it notes.

See, here is the thing ... you can not drop six pages and impose deadlines and have copy-editors who use "repositional notes" to make remarks.

These are rules. Respect them.

Gus, you're being logical and everything. Please to stop that?

And thanks, Deb. That's what I did: very straightforward, here's the story, I've been doing X for the last 10 years and that's why I know a bit more about the topic than the rest of your contributors (the last bit being implied). Please to read and throw me money.

Figures the thing that gets me off my ass to actually submit is a pre-set topic I know a lot about (even though I hate ficathons and writing to spec), and the prospect of $0.30/word.

Why, yes, I'm very lazy.

These are rules. Respect them.

Did I mention that the manuscript reeks, literally reeks, of cigarettes? Apparently, Mr. Anal-Retentive Post-It Guy is also a chain-smoker. My cats sniffed and back away hissing. I only wish I could have.

That's what I did: very straightforward, here's the story, I've been doing X for the last 10 years and that's why I know a bit more about the topic than the rest of your contributors (the last bit being implied). Please to read and throw me money.

Yep. Simple, straightforward, no foof or frill. Very few editors have the time for cute or fancy, especially when they're likely to get multiple submissions.

Please to read and throw me money.

This is a great tattoo idea.

and the prospect of $0.30/word.

Why, Child, I could tell you tales of a time when we would have walked uphill both ways for "$0.30/word".

Smiling.

$.30 a word is staggeringly good as a rate. Hell, I can, and regularly do, write 1500 words in the space of two hours. at thirty cents a word, that's, what, $450?

For two hours worth of writing, doing what I love to do?

Not too shabby.

My hours are less valuable than DG's.

I only have time to imagine, in two hours, a world in which there are no galleys.

I routinely give it away. Dying not to be a cheap date anymore.

Dying not to be a cheap date anymore.

Macks on erikaj, in a way that will renew her interest in life.

As Betsy tells me, you can't lose if you don't play.

... I say this now. But I'll be haunting the mailbox for the next few months.