Book Talk: Estimating Length

Staying Dead came in at about 97,000 words. They wanted 100,000, but I got a free pass on that one. Curse the Dark, however, looked to come in around 125,000 words, easy.

Um. Well. Being at 60,000 words more or less right now, a quick estimate of the remaining story to be told (and knowing how many words I'll generally take to tell it) shows the book coming in at around... 97,000 words.

Not that I have a natural length, or anything.

Of course, this estimation for CtD is for the rough draft, not the final, and I know that there are places in what I've already written where there needs to be material added and things explained. So I'm not worried about it. Too much. Yet.

Wrote about 2,300 words last night, which means I'm on track for the week. Of course, being on track on Monday is just a case of tempting the gods. And I'm off today and Friday to have lunch with former co-workers. A social life always does tend to get in the way of the writing...

Petty? Yes.

But entirely justified.

A while back, someone had placed an ad on a service called elance, looking for an editor to help him work his way through his book. It was a genre novel, and I really did have the perfect chops for it. And my price was within the fair range for what he was asking (and within the same range as several other bidders on the job with almost-as-good credentials).

My bid was rejected, as were all the others, because the price was too high.

Okay, I thought, let me bring my price down a bit (by a third, in fact) to see if I get a nibble.

Nope, that bid was still too high for this guy.

At that point, I determined that bidding lower would be stupid, as my time is worth more than he would be paying, and it was already clear that he was looking for someone to do a rather major job on the cheap, which is a warning sign for the freelance contractor. So I declined to rebid.

Unsurprisingly, the rebids he did get were not from the qualified types previously, but rather "I love reading I'd love to work with you" bids. But they were within what even the bid-placer must have thought were acceptable prices.

Today I received notice that the bid-placer had canceled the auction, citing a lack of qualified bidders.

Well, duh.

Health Alert!

For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition
and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting
medical studies:


1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the
Americans.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the
Americans.

3. The Japanese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks
than the Americans.

4. The Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and suffer fewer heart
attacks than the Americans.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages and fats and
suffer fewer heart attacks than the Americans.

CONCLUSION: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently
what kills you.

(via Walter Jon Williams)