The Blue Blazes (31 page)

He musters a chuckle, then goes and fixes her a plate. “I’m a vegan.”

“Ah, shit. Sorry?”

She sighs, then says, “I used to love a good hamburger. Still miss it from time to time.”

Then she picks a piece of prosciutto and pops it in her mouth.

He grins. “That’s the sexist thing I’ve ever seen.”

“What now?” she asks.

“For the first time in a long time, I dunno. I always came back here, but then the call would come. I’d be on the job.” He stares at the racks of liquor he’ll never drink. “Always on the job. But now there’s no job.”

“Maybe that means it’s time to move forward.”

“I wish I knew what that even meant.”

“It means you pick a path and walk down it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Where do I start?”

She holds out her hand and starts to lead him away from the bar toward the steps and up them. “It starts here. It starts tonight.”

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Every book is the product of more than just one person, even though the author is the one who wears the laurels on his crown.

Thanks to my wife and child for putting up with the weird bearded hobo who lives with them and writes these fanciful stories.

Thanks to dangerous deviant Dave Turner who, despite his city-dwelling pretensions, is a most excellent reader and editor of books.

Thanks to Robin Laws, who gave me reason to conjure the character of Mookie Pearl for the anthology,
The New Hero
.

Thanks to Lee Harris and all the Grumpy Cyborgs who helped make this book into what it is.

Thanks to Stacia Decker, agent extraordinaire, who knows her way around a hard-ass novel edit and who kicks ten kinds of ass. No, eleven.
Twelve
.

Thanks to author friends like Stephen Blackmoore, Adam Christopher, Gwenda Bond, Kim Curran, Mur Lafferty, Lauren Beukes, Myke Cole, Saladin Ahmed, Delilah Dawson, Karina Cooper, Matt Forbeck, Matt Funk, Jimmy Callaway, Dave White, Joelle Charbonneau, and Dangerous Dan O’Shea who repeatedly inspire me (and frequently conspire
with
me).

And thanks to all you people for picking up and reading his book. You are why I’m here after all, allowed to do this crazy author voodoo.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chuck Wendig is a novelist, screenwriter, and game designer.

He is a fellow of the Sundance Screenwriting Lab. His short film (written with co-author and director Lance Weiler)
Pandemic
showed at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011. That same year,
Collapsus
– a digital transmedia drama, also co-authored with Weiler – was nominated for an International Digital Emmy and a Games 4 Change award. He has contributed over two million words to the game industry, and was developer of the popular
Hunter: The Vigil
game line.

He currently lives in Pennsyltucky with his beautiful wife Michelle, their taco terrier Tai-Shen, their red dog Loa, and their son (known as “B-Dub”).

You can find him at his website,
terribleminds.com
, where he remains busy dispensing dubious writing wisdom. Said dubious wisdom is collected in eBook form, such as in the popular
500 Ways to Be a Better Writer
. His next book for Angry Robot is the third Miriam Black novel,
The Cormorant
.
 

terribleminds.com
 

 

ANGRY ROBOT

A member of the Osprey Group

 

Lace Market House,

54-56 High Pavement,

Nottingham,

NG1 1HW, UK

 

4301 22st St., Ste 220B

Long Island City

NY 11101

USA

 

www.angryrobotbooks.com
 

Mookie take it off again

 

An Angry Robot paperback original 2013

1

 

Copyright © Chuck Wendig 2013

 

Chuck Wendig asserts the moral right to be

identified as the author of this work.

 

A catalogue record for this book is available

from the British Library.

 

ISBN: 978 0 85766 336 8

 

 

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any

means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or

otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

 

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by

way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or

otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in

any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is

published and without a similar condition including this

condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

 

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and

incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination.

Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or

localities is entirely coincidental.