The Murverse Mothership

Last year I was pleased to be invited to an anthology to honor the writer David Drake. While we both do the same job (one of us is much, much more successful than the other), I know Dave more on a social level, as we met through a mutual friend at a comic book store. We met years and years ago, and he’s been inviting me to his huge annual parties ever since. Dude throws a HUGE 4th of July party. I like him a great deal and admire him as a writer, as one of the most honest people I know, and as a generous and welcoming man.

So Mark Van Name, who once was a cookie mule for me**, asked me to contribute a story to his anthology for Dave called Onward, Drake!. I fretted for MONTHS until I remembered Mark invited me to write a story inspired by Dave, not a story just like Dave. He could have gotten Dave to do that. (And he did, actually. Dave contributed two stories to the anthology himself, including a brand new Hammer’s Slammers story. But I digress.) So I thought about the conversations Dave and I have had over the years, and one stuck in my mind about history.

So I wrote a story about a fairy historian who has an unexpected welcome when he visits the human plane of existence. The title is, “The Crate Warrior, the Doppelgänger, and the Idea Woman.” I had a lot of fun writing it, and am so happy to be in this book (I’m on the cover, even! I’m in a book with GENE FREAKING WOLFE.) to honor my friend.

Onward, Drake! is available in October. Read what editor Mark Van Name has to say about it.

Here is a tidbit from my story:

And fairies, like us, make movies.

When we discovered this, cultural anthropologists shit themselves, wanting to know how such media technology evolved alongside our own. Film students began studying every piece of fairy film they could get their hands on. And Hollywood, of course, wanted to know how to monetize it.

* Yes, I am a child of the ’80s and yes, when I have an opening I will throw “electric boogaloo” into any sequel I can. Except for perhaps my own books. I’m pretty sure I’m not allowed to do that… I should check.
** The real story is less interesting than calling Mark a cookie mule. Someone asked him to carry some gift cookies for me across the country. He was kind enough to do so.