I have been deemed Acceptable!

Or, rather, Rangergirl has. I heard from my editor, the fabulous Juliet, this week, and the book has now been formally delivered and accepted. Which means the second half of my advance should soon be winding its way through the publishing house, then to my agent, and finally to meeee. Which is good, since much of it is earmarked for wedding expenses, and the rest of it will help finance our honeymoon to Hawaii.

There are also some interesting foreign-rights possibilities percolating (not for Rangergirl, but for something else) that I'll tell you about if anything materializes. I've discovered that the wheels of overseas sales turn exceedingly slow, and I'm pleased to have the good offices of my agent Ginger to take care of it so I don't get confused and cranky about it all.

I got the copyedited manuscript yesterday evening, so today (my day off) I'm going to try to plow through a fair bit of it. I hadn't realized copyedits were coming so soon! I understand it's a fairly light copyedit, though I haven't really looked through it yet. There are also a few more tweaks my editor wants made, but nothing too major.

So much for my plan to goof off for most of the day... Originally, I'd intended to write six or eight pages on the Bridge novel in the morning, then go out for lunch and a walk, hit a couple of bookstores, and spend the afternoon reading for pure pleasure. Instead I'll spend most of the day squinting at copyeditor's marks. Still, it's hard to complain about the work I have to do to get my first novel ready. And I'll still go out and get a nice lunch somewhere.

I have to pick Heather up and take her to the dentist this afternoon (my poor darling's getting a root canal). I'll definitely be having more fun than she will today...

Oh, the last lingering question:

White, dark, semi-sweet or bitter?

White, when I was younger -- I remember the first time I ate a white chocolate bar, I was simply astonished. That preference persisted through the early part of college (mmm, white mochas!), but then at some point my tastes just changed. I'd always been fairly fond of dark chocolate, but a few years ago it became basically the only kind of chocolate I really like. Dark, bitter, mmm. I think it was Jed Hartman who introduced me to the wonder that is Scharffen Berger, and since then, life has been better.

Update:

So I'm on a panel at Wiscon after all. I got a note this morning asking me if I wanted to be on it, and it's something I think I can talk about semi-intelligently:

171 Writing Across Genre Boundaries (Writing SF&F: The Business)
Conference Room 3 Sunday, 10:00-11:15 p.m.

Fiction genres as they are currently defined owe their existence to publisher marketing initiatives. Are they also a trap? Crossover novels between fantasy/sf and romance are doing well right now but what about a mystery/horror novel with a strong romance component in a Western setting? Could you sell it? Would anyone read it if you did? How do the genres limit what's available to readers and writers?

M: Catherine Lundoff, Jacob Weisman, Tim Pratt

(As the author of a contemporary fantasy with strong Western elements, which also apparently strikes at least half the readers as horror, I think I can talk about this. Even if it means I can't get incredibly drunk right away on Sunday night.)