Progress report:

Last time looked at: 2/8/17

Last actual wordage added: 2/8/17

Pages added, 2/8/17: Not sure

Current page count: 0

Estimated final page count: 350-400?

Word-count is now undefined.

Deadline: None, but Wildside sent me a contract.

Comments: I assume anyone who browses SF or fantasy on Amazon is aware of Wildside’s “Megapack” series of bargain ebooks.

Well, they asked to do one collecting a bunch of my short fiction.

I came up with a list of two dozen stories, and tonight I decided the time had come to assemble them.

I hit a snag almost immediately. The second story I went to add, “The Temple of Life,” didn’t turn up in my initial search, and I eventually realized why.

I wrote it in 1980. I got my first computer in 1984. I wrote “The Temple of Life” on a typewriter, and I have no idea whether I still have a manuscript or carbon.

But I do have the published story, so I dug it out and after debating whether to rely on scanning/OCR or not, decided I just need to type the whole thing in.

So I’ve started doing that. Haven’t got very far yet, just a page or two.

Given its age I expected it to suck; so far it doesn’t, which is a pleasant surprise. And it’s recognizably my style, even back then.

This story is definitely obscure, though — its only previous publication was in a gaming mag called The Space Gamer, 36 years ago. It’s actually a sequel to a story I started writing in high school and never finished.

I’ve also pulled out my multiply-published cat story, “Trixie,” for another go-round. The rest of the contents will have to wait until I finish typing in “The Temple of Life.”