Novel in Progress

I'm working on a novel. (I know: Who isn't?) I've just published a collection of short stories, my agent is working to sell a novel-in-stories (or so I insist on calling it; it may just be another collection of linked stories), and I've got a novel languishing in a drawer that one day I would like revisit, now that I sort of know what I'm doing. In the meantime, though, I'm working on a shortish novel that has themes and characters that attract me. I've given myself a deadline of the end of t...