Tonight I wrote 1,300 words in just under an hour, and sent the next installment for Steampunk Tales off to my awesomecakes beta readers.

Tomorrow, when I'm a bit more awake, someone remind me to check my contracts with Steampunk Tales about republishing rights, and maybe to contact my agent. I've got about 15k worth of story finished and sitting there, I might as well see if I can turn it into a book, right?

Psst Jilli,.. check your contracts and maybe contact your agent.

Ah-ha! Thank you, Laga.

Well, it would appear we're off to the races. First reader review of STARS is in (a lovely librarian in Indiana who received an ARC) and it's fabulously positive.

The rich descriptions of Soledad's dancing are what first drew me in to the book. Her blazing romance with Jonathan got me hooked. And then curiosity about how this retelling of Carmen would play out kept me going through the rest.

[link]

Of course, there's also a three star ranking up on GoodReads which bummed me, but oh well. Such is life. And I really need to avoid GoodReads as a whole. So I'm going to go back and read my nice review and maybe pet it a little.

I think a little petting is totally called for.

Final word count for the latest Steampunk Tales story: 4,615.

And I checked my contract with them: they retain rights for a year after publication. Which means I can't just put all of the installments together and see if I can sell them as a book. Pooh.

You can if you get permission. Which they might well grant.

So my wife asked me to print out my novelette for her dad and he liked the story though I was greatly amused he referred to the character I think of as "the asshole" as "the ding dong". Anyhow, her mother--who never reads SciFi--picked it up out of curiosity planning to look at the first couple of paragraphs but ended up reading the entire thing and like it too. I have to admit that felt pretty good.

Typo Boy, insent regarding your BeepMe post.

Received Sparky. Thanks.