As it happens, last night’s revision on “And Blow Them at the Moon” (the replacement of two scenes) resulted in a net gain of about 800 words, for a total of 8800. Which is, strangely enough, a relief. If it had been 8200 or something, I would have been moving heaven and earth to try and chip out the overage so I could send it to markets that take things up to 8K. But at this point, it’s a lost cause. Cutting that much would hurt the story. So I can relax and concentrate on making sure it’s the best story it can be for the markets that take 9K and more.

. . . which isn’t very many. But look on the bright side: if I do manage to sell it, my odds of award nomination go up substantially, by the simple math of there being many fewer novelettes out there!

(Hey, I can hope.)