Liese, that would be wonderfully generous. If you get it to the point of working, let me know how much it would cost to ship it.

Hey, all. I suppose the ethics of my response to this challenge are iffy since the "desert island" trope came up in a discussion I had elsewhere this week. But only some of these are quotes.
Overheard among the fannish

“Ooh, how about just me and him on a desert island?”

“Oh, you and your desert island...why can’t you people ever lust for anyone somewhere that doesn’t make me think of getting sand up my ass?!”

“Gee, that’s romantic.”

“I’ve heard his IQ is crazy high...do you think he could build a radio out of a coconut?”

”I think if it were me, we’d have other things to think about.
”

”My sister!1!”

”Do you think you used enough emoticons on that post? Seriously, people.”

“Lighten up.”

“How about a weekend at the Ritz?”

”I didn’t know you thought of me that way.”

”No, for you and him, silly :P”

“No...he wouldn’t go. It’s baseball season.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s why he wouldn’t go.”

“You don’t have to be such a buzzkill.”

Making more sense than J.J. Abrams isn't much of a challenge ....

Dude, yeah. I have spam that can achieve that in 100 words or less.

Not really here; my MiL sent me the new topic.

This one's especially for Raq, a prezzie, and then off I go again:

Nymph

Time circles. Farewell is now.

I took you in, do you remember? I covered your body with my own, warmed your chilled bones while the timbers of your boat bleached like Africa's elephants on the sandy beach. Seven years you stayed with me, taking what I had.

I knew today would come. There was always the wife you could never forget, never let go of.

I am as old as the water you turn to. My heart is scarred with my immortality. Ten thousand years, you were all I loved.

I wish you joy, and a fair wind to Ithaca.

Yay deb! Yay deb's pretty, pretty words.

Bitch

We play this game sometimes, over drinks at the bar. When I'm tired of your overly bright voice and manic laugh, bored to death of your poking and prodding, trying to get at my heart and discover who I am. When I am simply sick of what you are, I will ask the question.

Which three books, movies, famous people would you bring with you to a desert island?

Then I will sit back and quietly judge you, and always, always find you less.

Wow. Those were both incredible, they gave me chills.

Totally non-drabbly question for the editors here:

My mom is passing on to me a self-published novel by one of her customers for editing. Apparently it's decently written and a good story, but full of typos and grammatical glitches, and my mom's bookstore won't sell it until it's cleaned up and looking all professional-like. She doesn't need a beta to dig into the storytelling and the characters' inner lives and the like, just a spelling and grammar nitpicker to go over it with a fine-toothed comb and take out all the nits and tangles and snarls until it's all smooth and silky-shiny. She's willing to pay. What should I ask?

A brazillion.

JZ, this page is a good place to start with freelance rates (what you'd be doing sounds like it falls into the plain old "copyediting" category): [link]

JZ, some people charge a flat rate dollar a page. Some charge anywhere from $12 to $22 an hour, with the expectation that in copyediting a novel, you can *generally* edit about ten pages per hour. So you can do it either way, based on what you want to make and what you think she can pay.

I've found with first-timers, it's easiest to charge a flat rate so there's a concrete expectation up front.