Question about excluding a category

I currently have my blog set to show 10 posts per page. Within my loop I’m telling it to exclude posts from the category ID 17 (News). Now when I view my blog I have less posts showing up according to how many “News” posts should have been there as well.

Example:
My 4 most recent posts are “News”. (Being used in a “News” specific page). So my blog only shows 6 posts on the 1st page as opposed to the 10 I want.

How can I exclude category 17 and still always get 10 posts per page?

Here’s my current loop.

<?php if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
	<?php
	/*
	'17' is the ID for the news category which we do not want to display within the blog.
	So if the cateogry is '17' continue to the next post.
	*/
	if (in_category('17')) continue;
	?>
	<li id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>" class="clear">
		<div class="author">
			<img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory') ?>/images/authors/<?php the_author_ID()?>.jpg" alt="<?php the_author(); ?>" width="86" height="94" />
			<?php the_author_posts_link( null,'mar_10_b'); ?>
		</div>
		<div class="preview">
			<p class="date orange_14px"><?php the_time('F j, Y'); ?></p>
			<h2 class="red_18px"><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="<?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
			<p><?php the_excerpt(); ?></p>
			<div class="clear">
				<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="Read More">Read More &raquo;</a>
				<a href="#" title="Share This Post" class="share">Share</a>
				<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>#view_comments" title="View Comments" class="comments"><?php comments_number('No Comments', '1 Comment', '% Comments' );?></a>
			</div>
		</div>
	</li>
	<li class="rule"></li>
	<?php endwhile; ?>
	<li class="pagination clear">
		<?php next_posts_link('Previous Entries &raquo;', 0, 'prev') ?>
		<?php previous_posts_link('&laquo; Newer Entries', 0, 'next') ?>
	</li>
</ul>
<?php endif; ?>