It shouldn't be this difficult...

...but if it were easy, everyone would do it.
I could look up the exact quote - but I think you get the point.
Looking into HQN for publishing and the only imprint that I could probably send to, I was a few words short. So I have spent hours, much longer than it should have taken, to bulk up a few sections.
It's like my brain had already shut off this book so I could work on the next one and trying to get back was painful. I didn't know what to add and then when I thought of something, it was very hard to match the writing style again.
But, it's done. It now has the proper amount of words to submit. I will have to do this one by paper. I think they only want the query letter first anyway. Should be fairly simple.
I heard from another agency. They were very polite. After careful consideration...yadda yadda yadda.
That's 6 out of 13.
I sent an email to the creators of the contest that I wrote about a few days ago. I asked about their word count. Was it actual words or the 250 x page number calculation. They actually wrote back and told me that the calculation was fine.
I'm still short - by a lot.
I need a vacation.