Candle, Flame Proof Sent Back to DarkFuse

Working fast!  Just nine days after returning the contract, yesterday saw the receipt of the proof copy for “The Candle and the Flame,” set to be published next month at 3 p.m. EST on the thirteenth by DARKFUSE MAGAZINE (cf. November 28).  After a bit of a bobble due to a bad attachment (nine blank pages, no typos there!), the real stuff came and later last night I sent it back with only two corrections at my end.  “The Candle and the Flame” is a steampunk tale of capitalist economics partially based on Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Match Girl” — not my first foray into that particular story — but of a seller of candles, not matches.  “The Candle and the Flame,” also, is set in a universe where there are no angelic grandmas to convey little girls’ souls up to Heaven, not exactly.  But if its “Candle Girl” should come to an unlucky end consider this:  the announced January 13 2017 publication date falls on a Friday.