Tag Archives: Rated-R

Feb 15 2026

Predictive Patreon: An American Werewolf on the Titanic – April 12, 1912

I found the backup of the Half Million on an old hard drive when doing a creative audit a few months ago, and for some reason “An American Werewolf on the Titanic,” which I hadn’t read in 25 years, got under my skin. It was well-written for something I knocked out over a few days when I was 26, but it was also more or less what it said on the tin: a wealthy American werewolf travels on the Titanic with his faithful companion, and when disaster strikes they’re forced to resort to extreme measures to survive. There was no exploration of class, culture, or morals, and the research amounted to “The writer watched ‘Titanic’ once.”

It was definitely time for a rewrite. Trouble is, the movie made everyone an expert, and many of them were fans. I once spent two hours trying to determine if a kid in western Tennessee would have been able to watch “The Lone Ranger” on TV in 1955. I spent the next three months with 26 open browser tabs, exploring everything from the layout to the clothing to the slang, as well as biographies of all the major figures. I read restaurant menus, discovered how much the swimming pool cost to use, and counted the number of available toilets. If I didn’t get all this stuff right, I was going to get letters…

Dec 8 2025

Post-pubescent Patreon: Path of the Hunters, Part Two

I feel like I want to come back to this world at some point. Two mighty tribes have been at war so long that there hasn’t been a battle in centuries, and their conflict has evolved into a rigid slate of rules and courtesies designed to prevent violence from flaring up and involving both tribes. Two fierce warriors of these opposing tribes meet in the ruins of an ancient city, and cautiously dance around each other, trading insults and shaking weapons to cement their antagonism. Waltz of the frenemies.

Torvik continues to struggle with growing up; he thinks it’s a stupid idea and doesn’t want to do it, not that he has a choice. His body has been making some bad decisions for him lately, and he’s feeling churlish and short. His easygoing Kahjah opponent pities him somewhat, which outrages him further, and he’s picked a fight he hasn’t a prayer of winning…

Nov 30 2025

Post-Apocalyptic Patreon: Path of the Hunters, Part One

I was going over this story for about the third time before posting it to Patreon when a random neuron fired and I suddenly remembered a story I first read in high school called “By the Waters of Babylon,” by Stephen Vincent Benet. Suddenly, scenes from it sprang fully-formed in my mind, images I haven’t thought of in nearly forty years.

I’ve written a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction that uses an urban environment being crushed by encroaching nature, and in the abstract, “Path of the Hunters” is just another in the conga line. None of it was written with “By the Waters of Babylon” in mind, at least not consciously, but this story probably falls closest to it on the scale.