How's That Novel Going?

My novel is going AWESOME.  I'm sure I'll run out of steam sometime soon, but right now I've got a little over 9,000 words (about 18 pages in Word) written.  I love my characters, and it'll be a little sad to kill them off one by one once they land on Mars.  It takes a lot of dedication to be a novelist with a dark side- you've got to kill them even if you love them.