Finally!
Finished a rewrite on a story I finished several years ago. I've always liked the premise of this one, but everyone who critiqued it said the buildup took too long, though they all liked the ending. That doesn't cut it with editors, though--if it takes too long to get to the good stuff, they don't buy the story. So, I've rewritten it again. This time I did slash and burn, with mostly new writing, starting farther into the action, and only pulling in a few phrases I liked from the old version. Took 24 pages of beginning down to 15. Hope that's enough--it's the last 20 pages everyone liked best (yeah, I always write long). I'm sending it through my writers' group this week, and I'm sure I'll find out then if the slash and burn was enough!