I’ve had this story in the works for over a year. I knew how it fit into the overall narrative, with its characters and locales featured in Pink Ballerina and Beisbol Libre. I loved it, too, because it incorporates one of my adolescent loves: Chess, baby!

But I thought it was a novel. And it got stuck at around chapter 4, with nowhere grand to go. Then, this week, as I dusted it off and tossed it up in the air, it took a wonderful turn in my imagination, and it turned into a 10K word short story that packs (well, I think!) quite the punch, with a tiny bit of a twist thrown in.

When will it come out? Right now I’m envisioning it as part of a short story collection that includes Semi and DroNET. I’m still pondering whether I should develop a fourth story (Cyber Radio) for this collection, since I’m in no particular hurry to release it. The next week will tell!

For now, I’m really happy with King’s Sacrifice. After two passes through it, it feels solid. Maybe I can write a short story after all. Well, provided it’s long enough (which means not easy to publish at one of the usual places, but hey, that’s why I self-publish!)