I'm so sorry Allyson, but as Liese notes, that's a very positive letter. I know that doesn't fix things, but at least she knows you're a good writer.

Maybe you could do something else with them, Allyson. It sounds like she'd like to. Hope someone wants Sam, too, of course. I finished my spec script(well, at least draft 1.5) I think it's funny, even if I used more f-bombs than an Emanuel holiday dinner. It's still not quite right yet, but for now, I'm just going to be proud.

Congratulations on finishing the draft! There's nothing incompatible between carpet f-bombing and funny.

I got through chapter 52 in this revision. Not a whole lot more to go at this point. I read a bit from an chapter 41 and I'm not quite happy with way it reads, but I suppose that's why it's not the final draft.

While working on 52, Word gave me the message that there were too many spelling and grammar mistakes to keep marking them. First of all, that sounds a bit snitty, second of all, I had no idea it did that. I added some character names to the dictionary and Word grudgingly agreed to keep marking errors.

No, not necessarily, given that it's for Entourage and not "The Electric Company". Otherwise, I might have to do some 'splaining, huh? And I never knew Word did that, either.

Soon I'll be making my audiobook of this revision and doing the listening and wincing. I know I'll be unhappy, it doesn't read like it was done by an experienced writer (probably because I'm not an experienced writer), but I hope that my own impressions, beta reader feedback, and some stuff I've read on the art of writing will fuse together to give me direction on making it better in the next draft.

I've delved into 53 and I'm still in the section of did not happen in the rough draft which tends to slow me down. Now I need to figure out how two reuniting characters will respond to each other. There are complications.

The last chapter (57 or 58 depending on how things split) is getting close. I've very excited about moving on from the draft and doing a different type of revising.

In addition to a different kind of revising--mostly cutting and trying to improve the wording and sharpen the characters and setting--I'm also curious to see what beta readers saw coming and what came out of the blue so I can adjust the level of hinting. It's hard for me to figure out since I know everything and my wife read the rough draft so she's been corrupted too.

I'm still in 53 and still haven't got to the reunion.

I hope I can manage to cut a good 15k words after this revision. It feels like a construction project, I've got parts I want to add or expand, I need to remove things and probably more than I have on the chopping table already.

Some comments and my own observations made me realize one of the many fixes I need to make are to establish the relationship between two of the races better. My Faran race should be the sort of thing you scare children with while the same is pretty much true in reverse. There are some exceptions in one location in particular where there is an uneasy treaty, but in general I'm not sure the vibe is there.

So many things to work on.

Thoughts on paying for notes? I still have a little Christmas money so it wouldn't be a sacrifice as such... But that would be it so I'd hate to pay to have the guy say he hated it...people have been hating my work for free for years.