I just hit page 100 on the wip! In theory, I'm a quarter of the way done, though more than likely my rough draft will end up well over my desired 400 pages/100K words and I'll have to find a way to cut it. But still. It's a number. It's round. I've been staying on track this year, for the most part. I'm happy.

t pats self on back

Go, Susan! I haven't tried for anything more than a couple pages, double-spaced, at that.

Oh, you better believe these are doublespaced, too. And Courier 12, which takes up a lot of space.

The truly crazy part is now that I'm used to manuscript format I prefer the look of Courier to Times New Roman. It's crisp and it photocopies well. You get into all kinds of debates about which one is better and which editors prefer and so on, but I think I'm the only person who actually likes the way Courier looks.

Susan, you are far from the only one.

Susan, you are far from the only one.

Raises hand. Times is a bitch to copyedit, because it's too damn small. Maybe my eyes are getting older, but I much prefer Courier. I always asked my authors to submit in Courier, too.

And yay on the hundred pages. Nice solid milestone.

Oh, and Deb, that was sharp and painful and needed every word.

I loves me some courier. So much more readable, so much easier to parse. I use TNR for letters, but manuscript format with courier is da bomb.

Times is a bitch to copyedit, because it's too damn small. Maybe my eyes are getting older, but I much prefer Courier. I always asked my authors to submit in Courier, too.

The last writing contest I judged, I had three entries in TNR and one in Courier. The Courier was a much easier read, and not just because it was shorter. TNR is fine when it's an original from a decent printer, but I had copies, and even the faint degrading you get with a first-generation copy is annoying.

Susan, that exactly matches with Ruth says; she's 86 years old and her eyes are still probably as good as mine (reading glasses only), and she says she'd like to keep them that way, so nice large courier, please. Oh! And YAY! on the 100-page mark.

I'm spending Saturday reading erika's finished novel, and I'm hoping to hear whether or not my series will continue at St. Martins soon - Jenn said Ruth hinted at something, and since Ruth isn't a tease, I suspect we're good to go for at least Cruel Sister. It's weird; with the proposal on Ruth's desk since January and me not knowing what's going to happen, I've felt sort of in limbo. But now I want to get back to the book, since I'd like it done by August at the latest, and since the insane renovation project from hell - aka "The Victorian That Ate My Life" - is done to the point of being at least manageable, I can concentrate again.

Just trying to make those all those marks in Times is tricky. There's truly not enough room. And Times runs shorter, too, so when I hear I'm getting a copyedit that's near 400 pages and in Times, I'm groaning. (Although, also, happily anticipating a bigger bill to submit.)

Deb, Romancing the Blog features another column by Jenn today, just FYI. It's here.

Amy, the link is broken.

edit: Oh, and I nearly forgot: I got a nice review of Famous Flower in the Tampa Tribune:

THE FAMOUS FLOWER OF SERVING MEN. By Deborah Grabien. Thomas Dunne Books. 215 pages. $22.95.

Two characters from Grabion's previous book, "The Weaver and the Factory Maid," reappear in this new tale to deal once again with unrequited spirits and old folk songs. Penelope Wintercraft-Hawkes, a theatrical producer and actress, receives a bequest from an old aunt of a run-down, long-closed Victorian theater in London near the banks of the Thames. As Penny and her musician lover, Ringan Laine, set about restoring the decaying old place, it soon becomes clear why it has been abandoned all these years. It comes with a ghost. Not a harmless, beneficent ghost, but a real terror of a malevolent, murderous, angry ghoul who conjures up fire, mayhem, the flooding river and the scent of decaying corpses to keep humans away. Guided by the verses of an old song, "The Famous Flower of Serving Men," Penny and Ringan set out to discover what it is that chains their restless spirit to this time and this place. Their search takes them deep into the past - the Peasants' Rebellion of 1381, the French royal family, Richard II and the incarceration of prisoners in that long-ago time. It all makes for an entertaining and at times frightening read.

Reviewed for the Tribune by Maryhelen Clague.