Yeah, so about that major surgery I mentioned. It’s become extremely clear that The Helix Dance is still too long. Or it was. It’s down to something like 135k words now, which is, I think, at least more in the ballpark of what is a good idea. Very few scenes have been cut wholesale, still.
I’m beginning to discover that the thing about editing something this large is that it’s difficult to be sure of when you’re done. I’ve heard about this phenomenon but never experienced it first-hand until now. Duly noted for later dissertating.
This is not the best time for the next big project to start tugging at my brain, which it is doing. It’s also not the best time for much of anything, what with school and everything that comes with being on a semester system. I can’t clearly recall November of last year but I think it might have been difficult as well, so maybe it’s just a Thing With November.
I’m still aiming to have this thing in submittable shape in the next few weeks. We’ll see how doable that ends up being.