I CAME HERE TO EDIT FICTION AND CHEW BUBBLEGUM

Greetings, Weaponeers. My name is C. Brian Hickey, but since we're all friends here, you can call me Chris. I've been a contributor to Weaponizer for, what, almost two years now, and it's been a hell of a ride.

Bit of background: I was born in the neighborhood of Charlestown in Boston, Massachusetts, way back when letting young children play amid urban decay was a permissible thing. It was a tough neigborhood, and tubby, bookish kids usually have two choices: you grow hard and mean, or you turn inward and avoid the outside world, now that you know there are hard, mean people out there.

In retrospect, I think I found the Golden Mean between the two extremes: I did draw in, but not so much that I couldn't observe the hard people.

At any rate: my natural introversion and bookishness, mixed with my predilection for observing people, and I began to make up stories. Over the years, the stories got longer, but the root is still the same: those aren't three old biddies at Papa Gino's eating spaghetti; they're WITCHES. You get the idea.

I first became involved with Weaponizer through the Whitechapel forums, Warren Ellis' stamping grounds of old. This guy Texture posts a thread about an online literary magazine he runs, and anybody can submit.

Wow. That's big.

I was coming off a long stretch of writer's block, and I thought it was high time I get back into fighting trim.

And again, the stories got longer. I was hungry now.

You never know how hungry you can get until you lose that one thing that makes you you.

Long story short, here I am. I've recently been added to the list of Weaponizer editors, working with Herr Gieben on the Fiction side.

To submitters, bring me your best. I do not promise to be gentle. I do not promise to be kind.

I do, however, promise to be fair. That's the Golden Mean.