Well, “Brother Blue” is still a novelette, just, at 16,300 words (the cutoff is 17,500).

Why is this important? Because there are some markets that will take a novelette but not a novella, and even those that take both will think harder about buying a novella.

On the other hand, if it needs another 1500 or 2000 words to be the story it needs to be, it will by all means get them.

Today I strengthened the romance section (made it a site of conflict, not just a thing that happened on the way to the resolution), and also pumped up the part just before the ending, so that it relates more clearly to the middle, and the ending doesn’t seem abrupt, rushed, and unearned.

At least, I hope it doesn’t. My faithful editor will tell me. And then I’ll show it to some other people, and get their thoughts. I want this one to be the best it can be, because I feel like if I work on it hard enough, I’ll be able to sell it to a pro market. I’m not rushing to get it out, because I’d rather take the extra time and do it right.