The Writer's Weekend Update

I am having serious laptop problems, which is simply disastrous for a writer. I'm going to take it in today to see if it can be repaired. Even if it can, it might be time to upgrade. I have been told that creative people should use Macs rather than PCs. Anyone think there's any truth to that, or have an opinion? I haven't used a Mac since I was in grade school playing Oregon Trail, and I'm intrigued. I've heard good things about Scrivener.

Right now, I am finishing up an article on Swiss artist Jean Tinguely for Swiss Made Magazine. I haven't written for them in a while, though they recently published an older piece of mine on Herman Hesse (pages 92-95).

I broke 24,000 words in my novel last weekend because I went to an Austin WriterGrrls write-in. The hosts are lovely ladies with a lovely home and I always make good progress when I write there. They are hoping to host these write-ins on a monthly basis, which would be wonderful for me.

I was reading a blog post recently that said that for new authors, you should never, never submit a manuscript of more than 80,000 words. In reality, it should be closer to 50,000. This is good to know. I am just wondering how many words I need to write in order to come up with 50-80,000 good ones. I am halfway at my target mark, but I am still only focusing on one character's perspective on the narrative (there are two others waiting in the wings). And obviously, I know that the 24,000+ words I have written do not all merit being included! It's such an intense process, especially for a first-timer like me.