5,000 words gone from Promiscuous Mode

I've been on a cutting spree, hacking 5000+ words out of my novel in hopes of making it more saleable, and indeed I don't think anyway will ever miss these words. Quite an exercise. A couple times I got to caught up in the story that I forgot to look for cuts. Guess that's good. It is a twisty thing, with lots of cool characters. The bad ones are good. You know what I mean.

It's hard to look at every word and ask oneself, "does that word belong there?" I found I had the most trouble when I was trying to explain something technical. There, I didn't cut so much as try to explain better. Mystery readers are "people people" and they like lots of feelings, which computer people don't always exhibit on their rolled up sleeves. So like everything else, it's a balancing act. Think I did O.K. The part where the lovers broke up was really sad. The wild ride on the raft was exciting. The part I forgot to look at with a critical eye was when my sleuth was sneaking around an office at night. She got caught, of course.

No progress on the web site, but I'm hoping the 2nd half of the month. Saw another robin this a.m., and heard bird of spring singing when we took our walk.

Household hint, sort of. I collect nice dry fallen pine cones (big ones) and use them for starting fires in the fireplace. They burn like hell (!) and work really well.

We grilled a turkey breast Saturday and will live on it for at leas two more days. I made gravy (gravy, not sauce) from the drippings and it was fantastic. So lately we've sneaked in some grilling around the still wintry days. With daylight savings time, it is still light enough that S.O. doesn't have to go out with a flashlight.

Onward,

Grapeshot