Jack and the Beanstalk [SF YA]

About this story...

I started writing this novel in the middle of the night 25 years ago. I was supposed to be finishing an essay on Russian Literature in translation. I got a D+ on the paper and deserved the grade. But it set things in motion. At the time I was mostly writing song lyrics and plays, I think I wrote about 5 chapters and then gave up for a time. A couple years later, I joined a group called The Heinlein Forum on the newly more user-friendly internet and a company called Prodigy. I spent the summer of 1994 finishing it and the next couple years tweaking it. The first 4-5 chapters were featured in a magazine called The Galactic Citizen and had some cool artwork that I intend to post with permission of the artists. 

The novel is set about 40 years in the future [65 when it was written] and we have limited human space travel and beanstalks that extend from Earth to space so we can get stuff to orbit and back down fairly cheaply. 

The character of Jack is based on a distant ancestor, Captain John Higley, who lived outside of London around 1600 and was an indentured servant to a glove-maker in a town called Frimley. So there are some small references to that aspect. He ran away to America, eventually returning to pay off his indenture after being very successful in the New World. 

My influences of Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson are pretty plain and I learned a lot writing and rewriting it. Part of me wants to rewrite it set further in the future with a slightly younger protagonist, but it's one of many projects on my list, so we'll see. 

If you think the story is worth rewriting, let me know. If nothing else, it may provide readers with an idea of how much one can improve in 25 years of reasonably steady practice.