Just a very quick update.
The novella is coming along. I printed a third draft last evening after supper for my Beta reader to comment on.
At this point I am light on words. About 30,000 words light as a short novel is 50,000 plus. I don’t expect that my story will be that long. I am thinking I might add another thirty pages max which at roughly 300 words per page is 9,000 additional words. With the minimum for a submission being 50 pages, I am okay with my estimates. I have the end of this week – minus the weekend as there is masonry to do – to decide what to do, or not, with Beta’s suggestions/comments (which are almost always very insightful or back up something I was already toying with), and then the month of August.
Deadline for submissions is September 15th and I am feeling pretty good about it.
anniegirl1138 
michael crighton got lots of words out of a half-human/half-chimp character in one of his recent books… it even flung poo!
simply can’t imagine writing so much! that’s quite an accomplishment!
UK, 10k out of a pet monkey. I know I don’t want to know why. Thanks for your suggestions though. I will keep them under advisement.
You need to add something about radiation crazy mutants, like in ‘The Hills Have Eyes’. That should easily add another 20,000 words. The protagonist should have a pet monkey, and there’s your other 10,000. Let me know if I can help again?
Congratulations! It’s nice to be ahead of schedule, even if the word count’s not perfect.