Darn, I was hoping to have this ready for you all yesterday for Valentine’s Day, but it didn’t happen. (Would you believe a long line at the flower shop?) But today, here’s a present for all you iPad, Phone, iBook people out there:

Behold, Useful Monsters: Mardock Scramble 104 a novelette* in the world of Mardock Scramble, for you, for free! It’s a prequel, very exciting, and also offers a glimpse into the dark future of libertarianism gone mad and vending machine property rights. Do check it out! Of course, Mardock Scramble itself is now also available in the iBookstore! Much lighter than the 800-page print version!

Just a quick note since we’re asked this all the time: Mardock Scramble will also be on Kindle, perhaps as early as this afternoon. Maybe tomorrow. (Would you believe a long line at the flower shop?) The second it goes live I’ll tweet it. And also, we would have loved to offer Useful Monsters for free to Kindle readers as well, but Kindle doesn’t currently allow for free distribution of new titles. We do, however, have a second Mardock Scramble novelette coming right to the World Wide Web in a few weeks! It’ll be a free-for-all that’s truly free for all! So keep an eye out!

*What’s a novelette? It’s a long short story, or a short novella. You know, in the 9-13,000 word range.