The way I feel right now, a third of a brain would be better than none.

I hear ya, sister. I'm in the same boat.

Well, *I* don't want it, now that you've tossed it back and forth and it's leaked...goo...all over everything.

This is why we can't have nice things.

Help! Nested parenthetical statements: okay if someone writes in a very ... mannered, filled with asides style? Or should they be avoided at all costs?

(I'm thinking of turning one paragraph, that already has some parenthetical statements, into one large aside. I suspect my brain has started to shrink and rattle around my skull.)

Well, I favour them, but I suspect they appeal to only a limited audience. For maximum clarity and accessibility, I'd probably recommend varying it with dashes, or apostrophes, or SOMETHING else (even though I quite understand the temptation [irresistible at times] to use at least two [if not three {or even four, were it but viable}] different kinds of parentheses).

Jilli, it's hard to tell without reading it, but if by "nesting" you mean parens within parens, I think I would avoid them when I could, although regular use of parens for asides would be fine.

You could always begin the particular paragraph you mention above with: "On a side note" or "As an aside" or even "Aside:" and then parenthesize (is too a word) the bits you would have otherwise nested.

Even I, a parentheses addict in casual typing, try to stay away from the nested parentheses. They're very testy when they're nesting.

(When I said it was hard to tell, I meant hard to say where your particular paragraph [which might be one big aside] was concerned.)

Okay, slightly clueless question time (and yes, I've e-mailed my agent, but I'm betting she won't be able to get back to me until Monday).

My notes from the conversation with her say my sample chapters should be 10-20 pages. Is that 10-20 pages by how MS Word counts pages? Or could any of you peoples with more publishing experience than me give me a rough estimate for a wordcount for non-fiction samples?

Since Teppy hasn't had a chance to post a new challenge yet, I'ma take the opportunity to post another drabble.

The Midden

The edges of the vortex were delineated with motes. They spiraled upward in a slow dance of discovery, drawn into an event horizon they could not understand. The motes floated at first, with no apparent direction. As the pull grew stronger they resisted it by zigging and zagging, an unequal struggle against a timeless compulsion. Every now and then, one managed to break away for mere seconds before being drawn relentlessly toward the gaping maw. But they all lost the battle in the end.

I walked over; beneath the light I found a midden of insect corpses, shattered and burnt.