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My next Lovecraftian tale, following “The Dig,” is titled “The Button.” This is a very special tale, not only because readers voted on the type of disaster story I would write, but because I had the ability to twist the idea of nuclear holocaust into unmentionable shapes with a more traditional Lovecraftian voice.

Here’s an excerpt:

There was something else, though, another impolite description he used

that so unsettled my contemporary sensibilities I’m surprised I forgot his

condescension. He had watched me, he said, and knew that I, like others of

my weakened kind, were not strong enough to withstand curiosity’s siren

call, just like Eve all those eons ago.

I do not view myself to be a modern-day Eve bent on betraying Adam.

(Though, in my case, I suppose my expertise as a nuclear physicist would

frighten any Roman man, imagined, fish-like, or not.) Newsflash for ye olde

fish god priest: if Eve hadn’t taken a bite out of that apple, then Adam surely

would have, and no woman should ever feel punished for the arrangement

of her chromosomes.

Ah, but what do the trappings of our society matter now, when I should

be focusing on this button? Haven’t I already bitten that luscious apple?

Don’t I already know a way out of this predicament?

Can’t wait to share the finished version with you!