If I Were a Romance Heroine

I thought, given some of my discussion lately, that this was rather appropriate:


Oh dear, you are Bookish, aren't you? You are a
highly intelligent and witty bluestocking,
whose beauty is hidden behind spectacles. Your
dress sense is eccentric and a little
unfashionable, and you consider yourself plain.
You have very little use for men, who find your
knowledge of Shakespeare, interest in politics
and forthright speech formidable. You are
undoubtedly well-off. The only reason for your
presence in a novel of this kind (which, I
might add, you would not dream of reading,
although you have occasionally enjoyed the
works of Miss Austen), is your mother, who is
absolutely determined that you will make a good
marriage. Rather than defying her directly,
you are quietly subversive, dancing with anyone
who asks you, but making no attempt to hide
your intellectual interests. The only person
who can get past your facade is the man who is
witty enough to spar with you, and be amused at
your blatant attempts to scare your suitors
away. While you will, no doubt, subject him to
a gruelling cross-examination to find out
whether his respect for your intelligence is
real or mere flattery, you may be sure that he
is your match, and that you, he AND your mother
will all live happily ever after


The Regency Romance Quiz: What kind of Romance Heroine are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

I got my contract for The Current Monstrosity and its sequel this week, and in going over it, I discovered that my deadline is a month later than I thought it was. I'll still probably get it in ahead of that, but it's nice to know I have a cushion. My goal is to finish a draft by the end of January, let it rest a few days, do a fairly fast read-through/revision, then get it to my agent before Valentine's Day. The final book isn't due to the publisher until May, so that gives me time for rewrites, and then I can still probably get it in early. And then I can start on the next book, which is due in September.

I've also passed the minimum word count. The contract specifies that the work should be around 80,000 to 100,000 words, and it's currently over 80,000. But the contract also specifies that it has to be of acceptable publishable quality, and at the moment it doesn't qualify for that because it's kind of lacking an ending. The nice thing is, this means that since I'll be well, well over the minimum word count by the time I'm done, in revisions I can kill anything I don't love that isn't absolutely necessary for the story.

And now it's dinner time, after a busy day spent actually getting stuff done (like all my errands). I even registered for that community college exercise class, so I'm committed now and will be forced to leave the house more often.