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Jim Baen's Universe is now selling one year subscriptions, as well as memberships in their "Universe Club".

It's $30 for the first year (6 issues) and if you buy right now, they are offering e-Book packages to go with the subscription (you get the eBooks immediately). The club also has some pretty cool features too (you get access to the stories as soon as they're ready to go to print instead of having to wait until the issue is released, and other goodies depending on what level of membership you purchase).

In the last week, we've had a pipe burst, found out our 14 year old cat Persephone needs dental surgery, and after getting home from grocery shopping today, found that we are being sued for the ownership of our house.

So far, the only positive note this week is I got my check from Baen's Universe. It should just about cover the ER visit from Persephone' burst abscess last night.

Next time some dickhead cancels Christmas, can I be CC'd on the memo?

I just received my first contract. It's for a non-fiction article which will appear in Jim Baen's Universe magazine. I'm not entirely sure what issue, but likely the first or second. The pay rate was a bit more than I was expecting too.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to be off in the corner being happy.

"The Girl with the Killer Eyes" (originally "Dana Scully with Frickin' Laser Beams", then briefly "The Girl with the Laser Beam Eyes") apparently impressed Paula enough in its revised form to pass it along to Eric Flint, which means it's all up to Eric as to whether it sells or not.

Needless to say, I am totally, seriously going out of my mind excited right now.

I also need to rewrite the article this weekend, which pretty much means Sunday because I'm going to see my brother and his sprog tomorrow.

Man am I jazzed.

"Dana Scully with Frickin' Laser Beams" is now "The Girl with the Killer Eyes"

Paula and Rick, two of the editors for Baen's Universe had pretty similar suggestions. They both said the story was funny, but thought the pop culture references detracted from it. I stripped out the Scully joke, made some tweaks and resubbed so we'll see how it goes.

The good news is, the title gave me a basic format for all four stories in "We're Here To Help You"

I'm feeling pretty good right now, all things considered.

Bleh...

Okay, it's just not my week.

'Dana Scully With Fricken Laser Beams' got rejected in about three hours. That was a little sobering.

Also, Eric Flint emailed me yesterday to ask for major rewrites on the Terraforming article.

Boy, I'm not doing well on the humor front. Really just not. Ouch.

Normally, I'd just dive right into the rewrites. The problem is, when I get home tonight, I've got a paper to write for my Chem Lab and a test to study for.

Ugh.

Or at least the first draft anyway. Comes on at 3800 words, which is about 230 bucks at six cents a word. Not bad, all things considered. I'll need to get someone to double check the science for me. Most of it is pretty accurate I think, but there are a couple of places where I'm a little iffy.

Homefront (Warfront Book 1) - Out being line edited. I need to make a few final revisions when it comes back, but after that, it goes into the Baen slush. I also have a handy dandy skip to the front of the line coupon, so it should get read in January instead of November of '06.

I just finished the first draft of Meredith Mackenzie and the Uruk Empire. It comes in at 101,539 words (by MS Word's wordcount).

I suspect the thing needs some work. I wrote it in a hurry and there might be a few continuity errors and such, but I'm going to give it a bit of time before I make a revision pass. Get some distance so I can judge it critically.

I might even see if I can find a couple of first readers.

Still, that's two novels under my belt. Next up, a short story and a novella

I broke 100,000 words on Meredith Mackenzie and the Uruk Empire a short while ago. Just one problem. The darn thing is all but finished. I've got one more scene (maybe two) to write and darn it, I'm short on word count, and by the time I finish editing this thing, I may be shorter still.

Damn, damn and double damn.

It looks like what I'd planned as a seperate stand alone novel in the same universe may end up as shorts to pad out these books.

But I did it. I turned out a first draft of a novel in two months and I've still got some breathing room.