Noticing Newbies

I'm doing a google search of writers' forums and this one was close to the top of the results, so I decided to drop in. This looks like a comprehensive, yet friendly place, so I thought I'd sign up and stay a while.

A bit about me. I am a published writer. I've had quite a few articles published and one non-fiction book that went through 6 editions over a period of about 11 years. It's been out of print for a while now, but from what I understand, my publisher has recently released an ebook version of it, so I guess that now it will actually never go out of print.

I have a BA and MA in Linguistics and have received quite a bit of favorable feedback on my Master's Thesis, including recommendations that I make a book out of it. This is something I'd like to do some day, but I have other priorities at this time.

My passion is fiction, however. I'm currently working on a novel. I'm about 17 chapters into it -- about 60,000 words so far -- and I've become somewhat stalled out in the dreaded middle. Recently, however, I've realized that I'm going to have to introduce two major changes to the book, which will require an extensive rewrite. Maybe that will unstick me.

I know this place welcomes submissions. In my case, about all I'd be prepared to submit would be portions of my novel, which is (hopefully) a future copyrighted work, so I'm wondering how that is dealt with here -- issues of copyright, that is. I suppose I could also submit portions of my Master's Thesis. If you folks like academic-style writing, that is, which I don't particularly.

Well, that's about it. I'm gonna go browse the forums. See y'all on the boards.