diff --git a/md2tex b/md2tex
index c493544..38f093e 100755
--- a/md2tex
+++ b/md2tex
@@ -45,8 +45,8 @@ function inline(text) {
   gsub(/&/, "\\\\&", text)
   gsub(/\^/, "\\textasciicircum ", text)
   gsub(/\.{3,}/, "\\ldots", text)
-  text = gensub(/\*\*([^\*]*)\*\*/, "\\textbf{\\1}", "g", text)
-  text = gensub(/\*([^\*]*)\*/, "\\emph{\\1}", "g", text)
+  text = gensub(/\*\*([^*]+)\*\*/, "\\textbf{\\1}", "g", text)
+  text = gensub(/\*([^*]+)\*/, "\\emph{\\1}", "g", text)
   text = gensub(/`([^`]*)`/, "\\texttt{\\1}", "g", text)
   # links
   text = gensub(/\[(.*)\]\((.*)\)/, "\\href{\\2}{\\1}\\footnote{\\url{\\2}}", "g", text)