Word count: 45058 | Since last entry: 536 | This month: 2404 And we’re off on another story. This one is set in Hell, and it’s for a themed anthology — not the one called The Anthology from Hell, this one’s invitation-only. Why two Hell anthologies at once? Steam engine time, I guess. I would really like to be working on my novel, too. But I promised I would write this story, and it’s due in January so I’d better get cracking. My goal is a finished first draft in two weeks. We’ll see. This story is the flip side of my “bureaucrats in Heaven” story from Clarion (not yet submitted anywhere). Like the angel character in that story, my demon main character suffers the worst thing that ever happened to me in my job: promotion to management. I know what his current situation is, at both a micro level (he hates his new job and wishes he could go back to being an individual contributor) and a macro level (population pressure has forced Hell to move to a mass-production footing, meaning that talented demons like him are needed to manage the process instead of pitchforking individual damned souls). I know what happens at the end of the story. I’m just not sure yet what happens in between. So far I have set the scene and introduced the character. I like him and I think I have a voice for the story. He’s already in trouble. Now I have to make it worse. I’m going to give him an assistant. Mwah hah hah.