Let us know which issue it'll be in - I know I'll be buying a copy and I'm sure I won't be the only one.

Oh, yeah, especially on b.org...I couldn't have done it without y'all. You can't tell me it doesn't matter when editors are women, because I sent this around and some of the more guy-ish crime magazines did not care for it. Of course, there was not one moment at a strip club or where anyone snorts coke off a shapely female ass.(Although sometimes that makes me laugh if the chicks are models, because he'd probably do better with a straw, like a normal junkie. But I digress.)

fantastic news Erika!

I'm at chapter 48 out of 57 in my current wordcount-killing revision. I'm at 128,000 words and it looks like I'll be able to land this at 125,000-126,000 words. I'll need to tighten down about 2,000 - 3,000 words and I think I'll be at a reasonable wordcount for a fantasy novel.

Thanks, Sox...having a little Peggy Olson moment right now.(Without Pete to knock me up, I should say.)

Gud, knowing from experience how small 3K words are, yet how much they can contain, do you really think you have to cut it that much more before submission.

I'm just thinking...Twilight went on for fricking ever, you know?

I really think I should be on the right side of 125k at the very least. I'm at just under 127k right now and will probably be at least close to 126k when I finishing my chopping revision (I've got four chapters left to chop-revise). It seems like tightening might be able to squeeze out a bit more. I have to admit there are many things I'd like to add, but I'd like it to have a chance and even 124-125k would probably be pushing it.

From what I understand Twilight getting published was a bit of a fluke. It's weird, it seems like the things I read agents and publishers don't want are what's sitting on store shelves.

Speaking of the The Dead Mountain. I expect to be done with my chopping revision in a couple of weeks. Then I'm on going over my feedback and deciding what items I need to address and which I don't. Then it's editing and tightening. My first couple of chapters will go through a few more cycles though.

I'm hoping to be done and have made a synopsis by the end of the year.

Gud, I'm all for polishing until you think the *story* and the characters really sing, but I just wouldn't worry so much about a thousand words here or there. Speaking from experience, if an editor really falls in love with the book, s/he's going to want a chance to make suggestions for one, and s/he would also be able to give input on where to cut.

Plus? A book that's 50K words over length than one that's 3K over. There's a lot that can be done with pagination, type size, margins, etc., to make a book fall within the correct parameters for its price point, and that's the important thing. Books aren't a certain length because editors necessarily want them that way, but because books of a certain length are a certain size, and their price point is decided by paper costs, etc., for that size.

I have eased up on what I wanted to get down to. Originally it was 120k, then 122k, then 123k, but now I'm just shooting for under 125k.

I'm pretty much done with outright cutting now. I did also add a few things during this shrinking process because they felt like they needed adding. I think natural tightening will get me the last 2-3k to get under 125k total.

But I'm sure you're right, you know immeasurably more than I do. Now that I'm not at 153k, it's all going to be up to making it clean, fixing the problems found by feedback (at least the ones I think are legit), and hoping it manages to find someone who likes the style which is sort of epic fantasy with juiced up pacing.