Thanks for answering at least part of a question for me. I have, alas, a manuscript there at Tor that you guys asked for. My problem is that the request was signed "the editors" so I can't even address my queries (3 in 18 months) to anyone in particular. So, they get dropped on poor Patrick Nielson Hayden as the guy who got the proposal way back in Nov '03, and, after 21 months since the MS went out, still no answer. Is it possible to find out if it's even still there? My mailman is a cretin and it's truly possible he just lost the damned thing. Can you tell us the best procedure to find out such things without having to bug the editors to death? I was so excited to get a request that I forgot my usual procedure of putting a "we got it" postcard in with the MS. Yeah, writers get buck fever too!