X

X is a funny letter. Very few words begin with it. It has a half dozen sounds, it seems, from /cks/ to /z/ to its own name. In Latin, ex- means 'out of'. In some modern day pop culture, X means edgy and tough, in others it means a certain gene that codes for superhuman powers. It marks the spot. It's labeled an entire generation. We all have an x-chromosome floating in our nuclei. The letter x makes an appearance all through the biotech industry, especially in the names of companies. String three of them together, and you've got something naughty.

The Romans used X to designate the number ten. That's how we're using it tonight. I won't go into the number ten and the fascination that mankind has with it. It makes sense, though, since we have ten toes and ten fingers. Being a scientist, metric systems make lots of good sense and are easy to calculate in your head.

However, I'm here to say that the oft-referenced chapter ten is done. I can put a big red x over it now (see, x can also be used in puns!) and slide it into the complete pile. It's a very nice thing to not have any orphaned chapters laying twenty behind what I'm currently working on. If it took longer than it should have, I apologize. However, I am currently (or was until about fifteen minutes ago) working on three chapters simultaneously. One of those I should finish in the next couple of days, and I'll be one step closer to sealing off another story arc for another main character. It's all very exciting (no pun intended there...honest...I wouldn't have written out the ex part if I meant it).

So, the only ones left to complete are 22 and 23 (22 already about a third done), 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30 (30 about a quarter to a third done). Both of the started chapters should be finished this week. This would make it very attainable for me to knock this thing out by the end of the month (especially with a day off toward the end). Things are still on track in other parts of the book.

The numbers:
Word Count: 139,137
Page Count: 455

I think this week I'll start putting the headers and footers that are required for submission purposes on all the pages. I should probably start boiling down a quick synopsis for the submission letter.

So, that's my update. It's not much, but it is something, and it takes care of one less orphan I had floating around. Hopefully you'll hear more from me tomorrow night.