You all ROCK. It's 572K, well under the limit; coming shortly.

Granted, I might not be able to read it until later this week, because I am currently doped to the GILLS because of my back. But I'm definitely looking forward to reading it!

Argh. My work-in-process is first person, from the heroine's point of view. Or at least I thought it was.

After re-reading the sex scene mentioned upthread, I noticed a few problems, places where it needed a little more here, a little less there. I've been trying to figure out how to make it work without compromising Lucy's voice, which is lucid, controlled, verbose, and quite serious but with a touch of wry humor here and there. In many ways, her personality was molded by my desire to approximate a 19th century writing style.

Anyway, as I was trying to get a better grip on the scene, I re-imagined it from the point of view of Our Hero, James. I don't know if it's going to help me rewrite, but what it has done is make me want to write at least some of the story in his first person POV, because his head is so fun to inhabit. He's so immediate and impulsive I have a hard time reminding him to narrate in past tense. His sense of humor is much closer to the surface, as are his emotions. His voice is more colloquial.

But I can't let myself do this, can I? If I turned James loose with his slangy present-tense narration, I'd completely lose my pseudo-19th century style that I've worked so hard to achieve. It'd be a completely different book. And a 1st person POV romance novel is unconventional enough by itself--two different first person narrators would probably take me right out of marketable land.

I just want to finish the story. Prove to myself that I can carry a long project through to completion. And I'm afraid this is a sidetrack.

Deb, the PDF arrived and is now safely ensconced on my faithful laptop.

Susan, do you need a WIP editor for the particular scene? Willing, if you trust me and will tell me what you want toned/beefed. And you can always say ugh, not using any of this, but thanks.

I'll probably take you up on that, deborah. I'll have to actually type it in first--I've taken to doing rough drafts in longhand because that way I can't check Buffistas or my yahoo groups every time I get the least little bit stuck.

Susan, my email is the profile addy. Go for it, as needed.

Steph, re the back pain and the receptionist?

Interestingly, the bitch was wrong and there were about *5* rooms open. Cunt.

She has got to be related to Vicky, the Evil Bitch Twat of Death, office manager for my neurosurgeon. You don't even wanna know.....

But it certainly does sound as though your cool doc's evil assholic staff has been studying at Vicky's knee.

Susan, sometimes it's really useful to write a sidetrack scene, to get it straight in your head how the characters are reacting, even though the scene itself is not supposed to go into the finished book. Think of it as the 90% of the fiction berg you don't see....

Susan, sometimes it's really useful to write a sidetrack scene, to get it straight in your head how the characters are reacting, even though the scene itself is not supposed to go into the finished book. Think of it as the 90% of the fiction berg you don't see....

That's a good point--especially since one of the challenges I'm facing in this scene is trying to find a way to hint that while James is putting on an impressive act of confidence, control, and seductiveness, what he's thinking is, "I've never been with a virgin before. I wish her eyes weren't that big and scared. I don't want to hurt her. How is one supposed to do this, anyway?"

Deb, is late better than never? I would love to read anything you've got as a reader, no edits, cross my heart. Please?