Wanted: One Scoundrel was so much fun to write (and I hope, to read!) that I’ve written a follow up to Esme and Jed’s romance. “Courting Trouble” will be published later this year by Carina Press. That means edits for me, which I love. Deb Nemeth is a fantastic editor and I learn so much from her during the editing process. Thanks, Deb.

I aim to wrap up Esme and Jed’s story with a third steampunk novella, “Curses and Confetti”. The first draft was fun to write. This second draft is a complete re-write, adding a dirigible-load more conflict. Oh dearie me, what was Jed thinking to get himself compromised by a gypsy?

I’m juggling a couple of other projects. The first is a full length *gulp* steampunk novel. Like Esme and Jed’s stories, it’s set in an alternative vision of Western Australia (the Swan River Colony) in the 1890s. Jed was a rascal, but the hero of “Stolen: One Bridegroom” is more marked by life. Matthew’s disillusioned, a man who has fought for his beliefs only to be betrayed. He arrives in Swan River looking for forgetfulness, instead he finds himself kidnapped, bullied and bribed by an independent engineer who needs a bridgegroom — temporarily. Rose will do anything to ensure her adopted grandmother dies happy (anything short of marriage), but in kidnapping Matthew she can hardly have forseen the trouble that will follow him: International intrigue, a Faberge egg with lethal steampunk power and Matthew’s ex-girlfriend.

Griffin Review threw my 2012 writing plans into disarray by announcing a novella contest. Irresistible since I naturally write to that length. But literary is not my usual genre and I’m finding the going tough. I will make the deadline, but the style and subject matter is a stretch. More than usual I’m conscious of how I write and what I choose to spend my words on. I feel like a complete newbie, scared of the contest judges laughing at me.

Fortunately, there are always djinn to cheer me up. I love my “Out of the Bottle” series. I’d love to squeeze in another novella this year. On a related topic, have you seen Ticonderoga’s open call for their anthology, “Dreaming of Djinn“? Yep. I think there’s a short story in my future