Sleepless in Severna Park

I got a contract addendum in the mail yesterday from Harlequin. I won't bore you with any of the details except the one that said the finished manuscript for ANOTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT is supposed to be 75-80k words.

What the %$*&*(&&%^&^&???

The manuscript I actually submitted was 100k words and the last chapters haven't been fleshed out!?!?

Suffice to say I freaked out totally, wondering how in the name of all things creative I could possibly cut 100 pages out of a mystery novel and have it be anything but crap, and so tossed and turned all night waiting to call my new editor this morning.

To make a long story of voicemail and email short, I found out that Harlequin's New York office uses the computer word count, not the 25 line-per-page count. So as far as my editor is concerned, ASOM is around 85k and can go as many as 90k.

Can I get a "WooHoo!"?
Never mind, I'll say it myself and look forward to a night of real sleep.

(P.S. I have the coolest thing to share with you but it's not quite ready yet. Maybe by Friday... )