I’ll have a short little treat for you all sometime next week: Great Expectorations.

It’s a short story (3300 words) set, oh, 150 years or so before The Marann. It may or may not be in the same universe; we’ll just have to see about that.

In the late 24th and early 25th century, indentured servitude has made a comeback: people sell 10 years of their lives working for a corporation in return for resettlement on a colony world. Work hard and keep out of trouble, and when your contract is up, you’re a free citizen of the colony.

Cassie Johnson is one such debt worker, newly arrived on Hlatra and starting her term of service in the city of New Pittsburgh.

I’ll upload it to all the usual online booksellers (Amazon, B&N, Smashwords) as soon as my cover designer, the talented Laura Shinn, gets back to me. It should be out before Daughters of Suralia releases.