Sometimes, when I’m writing, I think I’m insulting the reader the way I hammer things home, only to discover on later reading that I missed an opportunity. The symbolism of the last bottle, and that Emily the bartender knew it was the last bottle, is sort of there, but the line “she thought the implication was obvious, but he didn’t seem to catch it,” sums up me and the story.

I really liked the “this is my blood…” part. I think I should have given it a little more narrative space, to let the reader work on it for a while before moving on. Possibly an echo of it later.

Those issues aside, I really am pretty happy with the story. I criticize my work so I can do better. I criticize it publicly so you can tell me I’m wrong.

I like Tequila Mary. She will become legendary. (We will hear a bit more from Danger Amy as well.)

I have more from the Tin-Caniverse coming along, and I can’t help but feel that it belongs at Piker Press. I don’t want to wait for the anthology for them all to be together, and Piker Press is directly responsible for waking me up to the great vibe of the original story. I am very happy with The Tourist, the story I’m wrapping up right now, and just for fun tonight I wrote a bit completely from the point of view of the Big Eye, triggered by the events of The Tourist. It will never be a story in its own right, but it was fun to play with.

F&SF will be receiving a submission from me soon, but I hesitated and sent it to a couple of folks for review first. I’m glad I did.

Given that the fine folks at the Mag of SciFi & Fantasy have already demonstrated their good judgement by previously paying you for your work, have you sent them anything new lately?

Where’s Zombie month on the Jer calendar?