Chapter Thirty-One is now online. Read! Enjoy! Tell your friends! Send money!

We’re paid through Chapter Thirty-Three, just over halfway to Chapter Thirty-Four. Chapter Thirty-Two will be posted no later than Wednesday, January 19th. (“No later than”? See below.)

The first draft is written except for the second half of Chapter Thirty-Eight, and I might decide to add a short epilogue. It runs forty chapters, and about 125,000 words. I should have this draft finished in a few days, but due to the need to actually make a living I may not get to the second draft for a couple of months — I hadn’t intended to take this long on this story, and want to get something else out to market before reworking it.

At this point there’s no doubt that the novel will be finished and eventually published, but the serial is another matter — we’re still short six and a half chapters on the money end. I don’t mind dragging it out, if the money comes in slowly, but if it’s still not done when the finished book sees print, it never will be.

On the other hand, if the money comes in more quickly than expected, I’m planning to go to twice-a-week publication, Wednesdays and Saturdays. If I have more than two chapters paid for by this weekend, one will go up Saturday, as well as Wednesday — so if Chapter Thirty-Four is paid for by 11:00 p.m. EST on Friday, Chapter Thirty-Two will be posted Saturday, January 15th, rather than waiting until next week.

Will that happen? We’ll have to see.