[Starship Hopeful 07] • On, Don't You Know There's A. War

In 1981, I have no idea why, I started a series of oddball science fiction short stories; I mean, every once in a while those people warped through my brain again, until, by 1988, I’d done 5 of them. Then I stopped, and again I have no idea why; they’d been fun to write. All 5 were published in Playboy. When I sent in the first one, Alice Turner, the wonderful fiction editor there — one of the best, recently no longer there, which is Playboy’s loss — said she’d buy the story if I would send her, in a plain wrapper, whatever I’d been smoking or ingesting while writing it. Herewith, “Don’t You Know There’s A War On?” the first of the starship Hopeful stories. ~ DEW