Mmph.

I'm feeling better today. I guess. I plowed through 18 pages of a 23-page edit yesterday, and hopefully I'll get the rest of it done today. And perhaps I'll let the Usual Suspects have at it once that's finished. I should also email my Writing Buddy and see what he's up to, since I actually (finally) have something for him to read.

I've decided that, for the paragraph that's bothering me, I'm going to copy and paste that into a new doc so I'll have it in front of me, and then basically rewrite it from scratch.

Also, my pal Larry Correia is running a book bomb for my other pal Dan Willis today. A book bomb, for those unaware of this phenomenon, is when a lot of people get together on one day and buy a certain book. This makes its rank go up on Amazon, it gets more recommendations, and, of course, it puts coin in a writer's pocket. If you like steampunk, check out The Flux Engine, and if it looks like something you'd enjoy, then blow six bucks on it and help out a super-nice guy.

Also, if you click through that link and buy anything else, that also helps Larry. Conservatives on my flist, if you haven't heard of him, you will love him.

*headdesks a hole through my desk*

Well, at least I figured out exactly what's been bugging me about that one paragraph that refuses to behave. It's not just the clunky construction of the boring exposition. It's the "show, don't tell" aspect. There's a whole lotta tellin' here, and not much showin'.

So that's awesome. One paragraph is probably going to morph into three. Just what I need in a fifteen-thousand-word behemoth. More words.

Just shoot me.

That came out better than I hoped or expected.

The Horrible Paragraph of Clunky Awfulness has been pared down, rearranged, and mashed into something of fewer words that doesn't suck. My second round of edits is done. This makes me a happy camper.

And the publication I sent the Cow story off to likes it, but they publish several different magazines and so the owner-dude wants to pass it to a different editor because he thinks it's a better fit there. After apologizing for taking so long--which, you know, five weeks where there's two holidays involved doesn't seem like that long, especially when I've waited eleven months for some places to get back to me.

Naturally I told him I'd be delighted if he passed it to a better-fitting editor, and I hope they like it as much as he did and will finally take the poor thing off my hands. It's one of my very favorite stories and I'd love for it to find a home at a pay rate it deserves.

So, yes. I'm feeling better about things today. It helps that the Period Headache has abated for now and I actually fit into these damn pants this morning when I didn't the other day. Stupid hormones.