should I take the "never apologize, never explain" route and skip the email and just send when it's ready?

This.

And congrats again on the win!

Susan, my feeling is if you promised an editor something (even with no timeline) and have reason to expect that editor is expecting it sooner than she (or he) will receive it, I'd let that editor know, rather than having it come as a surprise. In short, I'm pretty sure any editor who is expecting something from you wants to know when they will receive it. Nothing to with handholding.

Hmm - OK if Barb and I disagree Barb is published, so she is right. But it surprises me. I've heard a lot that keeping your editor informed as to when stuff will arrive is essential.

Ah, but that's if you have an editor and a deadline and yeah, definitely, you want to keep them in the loop. And while I am way, WAY far from knowing everything, I've at this point met enough editors and asked enough questions to know that the majority of them would receive an email like that with a "Buzzah?" sort of response. Because they'll be totally blank, in all likelihood.

Whereas receiving the submissions package with the big REQUESTED MATERIALS on the front and a lovely letter saying something along the lines of "Dear Fantabulous Editor, It was lovely meeting you at Conference X and getting the opportunity to discuss my story, Manuscript X with you. As requested, here is the partial... etc., etc. Nice sign off," is at least poking their memories with the added benefit of having the material Right There. Plus, what if Real Life intercedes and you can't the manuscript to them by the date you promised?

You seriously don't want to become That Author, who appears to be emailing for the sake of emailing. Because that has a tendency to make editors, at least the ones of my acquaintance, very cranky.

I've heard conflicting advice on this one. If he were REALLY my editor--if he'd bought the book--I'd have deadlines, and if anything unforeseen came up that made meeting those deadlines impossible, I'd tell him right away, with ample apologies and explanations. But in this case, well, it's a requested partial from a conference, one step up from the slush pile. What I need to do is A) prove to him that I can write a damn good book, and B) prove I'd be good to work with. In an ideal world I should've admitted at the pitch session that the ms isn't quite ready, but I was winging it under pressure and didn't think to do so.

Anyway, I'm not sending this out until I'm sure it meets criteria A, which means I'm not sending him the partial now. The first 75 pages are OK, but I'm planning changes, and there's enough MAJOR rewriting needed in the rest of the book that there's no way I'm taking the risk of him getting to the partial right away and requesting the full.

So I've just got to figure out if being "good to work with" in this case means not pestering him with trivia about the length of my editing process or keeping him up-to-date.

Plus, what if Real Life intercedes and you can't the manuscript to them by the date you promised?

I'd thought of that. I mean, to look the ugliest of my realities in the face, my mother has cancer, and it's not going to go into remission. At some point, and I don't know when, I'm going to need to take time off from everything in my life.

You seriously don't want to become That Author, who appears to be emailing for the sake of emailing. Because that has a tendency to make editors, at least the ones of my acquaintance, very cranky.

Yeah, that was my concern. I think I'll hold off, put his business card somewhere I'm sure I won't lose it, and use the need to submit before too ridiculously much time has passed as a goad to the Muse.

I've been terrified of sending my stuff to Agent Kate. Since we have a meeting today, I emailed her what we have so far and she said:

OMG I love this.

What happens!? What happens!!!??? I can't wait to read more.

YAY ENCOURAGEMENT!!!!!!

What happens!? What happens!!!??? I can't wait to read more.

I just got off the phone with Agent Kate and I said I knew I needed to let her go because she had to talk to you today and she mentioned just HOW FREAKIN' GOOD the MG is and how excited she is by it.

Just thought I'd throw that out there. *g*

Oh that's so nice to hear. I'm so freaked by fiction. And by writing for kids. And by hopefulness.

If I recall correctly, you were rather freaked by writing your personal experience and opinion, that nobody would be interested or would want to read it, before you submitted Vampire People, correct?

This is your process. It's okay. Just keep going. You will always have an audience eager to read what you write; your voice is unique, whether you're talking about baby bats or beagles.