I have now sent in the manuscript for book 2 (current title The Masked City) to my editor. Next step is to wait for edits.

And to start work on book 3.

(And panic that nobody’s going to like it, etc, waah, waah. You know the tune.)

And perhaps have a bit of retail therapy by purchasing the Phoenix Wright/Professor Layton crossover game which is out tomorrow. I can swap between that (for mental puzzles and storyline) and the also-just-out Diablo 3 Expansion: Reaper of Souls (kill kill kill, loot loot loot). Perfect.

We would gladly have have listened to her (they said) if only she had spoken like a lady. But they are liars and the truth is not in them.

Shrill… vituperative… no concern for the future of society… maunderings of antiquated feminism… selfish femlib… needs a good lay… this shapeless book… of course a calm and objective discussion is beyond… twisted, neurotic… some truth buried in a largely hysterical… of very limited interest, I should… another tract for the trash-can… burned her bra and thought that… no characterization, no plot… really important issues are neglected, while … hermetically sealed … women’s limited experience …another of the screaming sisterhood… a not very appealing aggressiveness… could have been done with wit if the author had… deflowering the pretentious male… a man would have given his right arm to… hardly girlish… a woman’s book…. another shrill polemic which the … a mere male like myself can hardly … a brilliant but basically confused study of feminine hysteria which … feminine lack of objectivity … this pretense at a novel… trying to shock… the tired tricks of the anti-novelists … how often must a poor critic have to … the usual boring obligatory references to lesbianism… denial of the profound sexual polarity which… an all too womanly refusal to face facts … pseudo-masculine brusqueness… the ladies’ magazine level… trivial topics like housework and the predictable screams of … those who cuddled up to ball-breaker Kate will… unfortunately sexless in its outlook … drivel… a warped clinical protest against …violently waspish attack … formidable self-pity which erodes any chance of … formless… the inability to accept the female role which … the predictable fury at anatomy displaced to … without the grace and compassion which we have the right to expect … anatomy is destiny … destiny is anatomy … sharp and funny but without real weight or anything beyond topical … just plain bad …. we “dear ladies”, whom Russ would do away with unfortunately just don’t feel … ephemeral trash, missiles of the sex war … a female lack of experience which …

Q.E.D. Quod erat demonstrandum. It has been proved.

– The Female Man, Joanna Russ