This week's reckoning

It's Tuesday, it's near enough noon; we have a wager on, davidbarnett and I (oh, and anyone else who fancies joining in, who can take on a deadline of end-of-this-month to finish a book), to see who gets there first. ['There' being defined in this instance as book-on-agent's-desk, delivered.]

So, this week's wordcount:

51,698 / 90,000 (57.4%)

Or, in pages:

156 / 300 (52.0%)

Over halfway in both, apparently, which is pleasing progress from last week - tho' actually the story doesn't feel halfway done (surprise!) and I begin to suspect that we will overrun.

It is also evident that we will have to run faster, if we are to bring it in on time, whether or not we defeat DB. Still, at least I have a chunk that I can deliver to our agent. Or could, if my e-mail were not offline. I don't usually deliver books in chunks, but I could use the reassurance with this one, as it's the first novel I've written on spec for twenty years or so. Besides, he's moving house, he's about to lose his broadband for three weeks; he needs reading-matter. Whoo, yeah... (And, as I say, my e-mail is down, and my websites too, and my webmistress and her guru are on holiday - aaargh!)

How ya doin', Dave?

A cry for help

samarcand - if you're reading this - d'you have any idea why my websites are all down, or when they're likely to come back up again? (NB, answer here or on the cursed telling-bone; e-mail goes down with the sites, obviously. Whimper...)

That 'Gay Rights' meme

This is scooting around all over my friends list this morning:

'"Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?" - Ernest Gaines

We would like to know who really believes in gay rights on LiveJournal. There is no bribe of a miracle or anything like that. If you truly believe in gay rights, then repost this and title the post as "Gay Rights". If you don't believe in gay rights, then just ignore this. Thanks.'

And I'm not actually sure whether I do believe in gay rights, per se: I kind of believe in human rights, without the option to distinguish in matters of sexual preference. But what really gets my goat (and I want it back! I had plans for that goat) is that penultimate sentence, the suggestion that anyone ignoring the meme was making a statement against it. Screw that.

I think Alice's post and the comments say it better than I do. Yay for articulacy and boo to bullying.