Does this count as a milestone?

Back on June 2nd? I made it to 64,000 words on my current WIP. And last night? That’s right, back to 64,000 words.

There’s a broader lesson in there someplace, something about making progress slowly or two steps back for one step forward or something. Whatever! The longest the WIP has ever been is 71,000 words and I expect I will get comfortably past that sometime next week, particularly as various chunks I cut will be added back into the ms as I get to the new, later, scenes they now belong to.

The plan is still to be finished with it by the end of August. Since I have two weeks off in August before the fall semester starts, I can do a push then and get it wrapped up. And there should be a lot less revising to do on the first go-through, since a lot of the big stuff got done in this current stop-and-revise session. I am dying to get to a different WIP, but also dying to make inroads on my TBR pile . . . choices, choices! My life is so tough!

Meanwhile! I will do a quick post on the Hugo nominees that I’m voting for in a few days, after I’ve read the other three novellas and LEVIATHAN’S WAKE. Which arrived yesterday, and it is a monster, 600 pages, which is GREAT, don’t get me wrong, I love long books, but it’s sure heftier than I expected. I like the opening couple of paragraphs, but I want to read all the novellas first before I really start it.

And speaking of the novellas? Just finished this one this morning.

“The Man Who Bridged The Mist” won the Nebula, and at the moment, though I’ve got another three to read, I’m dead positive I’m going to vote for it for the Hugo. Loved it! LOVED it! Apparently Kij Johnson has no trouble with people reading his novella online, which is GREAT. That link above is straight from his website. So click and enjoy!