I edited a Fiction River anthology, Pulse Pounders, filled with action stories from all genres. As editor, I felt obligated to produce a story of my own, but I had a really hectic travel and appearance schedule. In one year I did twenty different comic cons and SF conventions, writers’ conferences, and keynote talks. I had a great idea for a science fiction horror story, a thriller set on an isolated mining colony whose controlling brain was going senile … but how was I going to find time to write it?
I traveled often with Peter Wacks, and I remember brainstorming this story with him sitting in adjacent seats on an airplane, scribbling notes, coming up with plot twists. At Salt Lake Comic Con, with the show floor open at 10 am, I set my alarm early and got up just after sunrise so I could walk around the city with my recorder, dictating one or two scenes in this story before I had to get changed for a day at the show. I managed to get most of the first draft done before the end of the con, and Peter fleshed it out and polished it, and I did the final draft. I took advantage of any spare minute here and there, and the result is an extremely chilling SF tale.