YEAR'S BEST HORROR 1987, English and Dutch

CHINA BEACH 1989

I'll be watchin these episodes over Memorial Day. Set in 1989, the actors in make-up relate their lives after the war and the show's setting in 1969. Brilliant idea, really. The show debuted in the fall of 1989, and I was in the hospital for the first few episodes, my arm in a cast. When S2 aired, I was again in the hospital, the plates and screws having broken up in my ruined arm.

Somewhere along the line, Karl Edward Wagner, the guy who gave me a name by reprinting my stories in Year's Best Horror from 1986 until his death in 1992, learned of my crush on Dana Delaney in her nurse uniform. Every few weeks, I'd get mail from Chapel Hill NC, postcards in Karl's handwriting signed by "Dana". An article from TV Guide or the local paper, with a word balloon coming from Delaney's mouth as she professed her undying love for me. Old times, fun times.

But whenever I watch CHINA BEACH, I hear the moans and be actutely aware of the smells at 3AM, the ones at Holy Cross Hospital that I'd become intimate with.

HORRORSTORY: VOLUME FIVE

.An amazing thing happened a few weeks back. I found a copy of HORRORSTORY: VOLUME FIVE on Amazon for $40.00. For several years, prices have ranged from $100-$350.00.  I owned a (contributor) copy once, but sold it so I could by groceries when I was unemployed in 2006 and was down to applying for a job with Clowns2Go. Underwood-Miller was publishing the volumes in reverse order, each book holding three volumes of Year's Best Horror. The fifth volume has two of my appearances, "Rapid Transit" and ts sequel "Take The 'A' Train." RT was my first published work, accepted by Peggy Nadramia for GRUE#1, and it is the only place you'll see my byline without my middle name.

If Karl Edward Wagner hadn't chosen my story for YBH:XIV, I might very well be working at a traveling carnival as the guy who can make his veins pop out of his head. One of my parlor tricks. I call RT my albatross, as I certainly got better with my approach to writing both fiction and non-fiction. I'v posted photos of the various books where you can find the story, in Dutch, Danish, and German. I'm happy that I was able to get the book proudly posed next to my Walter White action figure. Seven years is a long time to be gone, but I truly needed money to eat.