70k words! Give or take.

I just printed up YA MS the First, so I could give it a full read through before I go back and do some revisions, plus write Suzanne's tiny section to finish it off. Beth, too, we'll hopefully read through all the new material. I think she'll be better able to tell me when it falls apart and what a piece of crap it is.

So, like I said, printed it up (on the slowest (but least expensive!) printer in the history of the world, by the way), and it is almost exactly twice as long as the original novella, which makes a nice length for a genuine novel now. Of course, as it is actually a collection of three short stories and one novella, I guess it's not a novel at all. Who knows.

A nice package came via UPS yesterday afternoon: ten copies each of my six newest SAB titles. They're all credited to Eric Stevens, but a couple of them I'm actually pretty fond of. So that's cool. I'll take one of each over to the Hamline branch in the next few days to donate. Because really, do I need ten copies of each? No, I don't.

On the personal front, my cold is still with me, though it's not so bad; mostly I'm coughing in the night. No fun at all. But worse still, it seems to have spread to Sam and Beth. Hopefully it will soon leave our family completely. I mean, after Harry gets it too. And he better, the little jerk.

Oh, also I finally finished Pretty Monsters, and it's the best thing I've read in ages. I loved just about every word of it. I think I said this before, but Kelly Link has got to be the bravest writer I've ever read. I need to read more of her to improve my chances of becoming as brave, or nearly.

I've started Someday This Pain . . ., by Peter Cameron. This narrator is one smart cookie, so I have to stay on my game. Only a few pages in so far.

The weekend is here. Tomorrow is going to be a very productive day, with any luck. Suzanne's tiny section will be finished, and the printup I just made will be marked all up in red ink. Won't be long now.