Woo hoo!

Author news.

Image is AI. Not pictured is the deadline screaming past.

At Libertycon 35 in 2023 (I think), Larry Correia asked me if I’d write a story for the second Monster Hunter anthology.

Of course I said, “Yes”. On the 14 hour trip home, I decided that I would do something in West Texas, and by the time I recovered from the trip I knew that I would be writing a story about somebody named “Angela Wainwright”, there would be explosives involved, and — of course — a chibi T-Rex¹.

Angela told me her story over the next several weeks, and I did my usual routine of setting up each act with a description of what would happen, and a quote that would occur during that act. The same SOP that has served me faithfully for years.

And then I … just froze. Life jumped up, and smacked me in the mouth, Murphy remnded me that he still had a case of the hips at me — you know. The usual. This time, I’d sit down at the computer, poise my hands over the keyboard, and start stressing out. To the point I started hyperventilating a couple of times.

Well, this went on until the deadline whistled past (and receded in the distance); I figured “Well, lost that chance.”

Libertycon this year, I chased down Jason Cordova to apologize for whiffing the ball on that one, and he gently said, “Get it to me by this date.”

I blinked, mildly panicked, and nodded.

Then I told Mike Burke² that I had a second chance.

I don’t know if you’ve had a retired USMC Sergeant-Major call you every day for three weeks and clear his throat meaningfully into the phone, but it does tend to focus the mind wonderfully.

After a couple of conversations he told me to just start writing scenes. Not the story, just scenes from it. And next thing you know, I had 3,500 words, and they were finally — after years of drought — words that flowed freely.

Spent about a week, hopscotching around the story writing scenes, then stitched all the scenes together on the day of the deadline. Since this was a method I had never used before, I emailed it to a couple of my editors³, they didn’t find any gross errors, and I sent it to Jason just before noon local time.

Well, kind of to my shock, it was accepted, and “Friday Night Wights” is now officially in the Monster Hunter Files, Volume 2 anthology.

Go Team … And More!

If you want to read about Angela Wainwright, Team Very Large Mammals, and the chibi T-Rex⁴ … you’re going to have to buy this book.

Ian

1. I don’t know. The inside of my head is a weird place.

2. a/k/a Spearman Burke.

3. There are some perks to being the CEO of a publishing house.

4. She’s pink — because of course she is.