Hello, I recently picked up the book Masked and I just finished reading your story, Thug. Many times it had my eyes getting watery, especially the part about his mom and angels, which was just heartbreaking. I just wanted to thank you for writing such a b

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Thank you very much. I hadn't written much prose other than as a columnist, and I do get asked a lot to write novels and short stories. Mostly, I haven't had the time, but in this particular case, my dear friend and prose hero Paul Cornell is the one who put the editor in touch with me, for MASKED.

It was very intimidating to consider, my first prose story as a working pro would be in a book with all these amazing, award winning writers. Mike Carey, Marjorie M. Liu, Peter David, all these real writers with great resumes.  And this was my FIRST.

So it was a little terrifying. I had a story in mind, that I thought had some heart, and I sent it to the editor, with a note saying, listen, if you hate this, no harm done. You don't print it, no hard feelings. That was a scary wait for a response!  He wrote back very soon after and was just extremely happy and complimentary. I breathed a huge gasp of relief.

THUG has gotten a terrific response, lots of my pro friends have raved to me about it, and encouraged me to write more prose. I've been working on it a little. And lots of readers have taken it very personally.

I've come to the conclusion that a writing career is like a never-ending game of Russian Roulette, every new opportunity, every new risk, is a chamber, and some have bullets in them.

I'm glad the story moved you in that way, it means a great deal. Thank you.