Deniability – Through A Glass Darkly

Eric James Stone is a past Nebula Award winner, Hugo Award nominee, and Writers of the Future Contest winner. Over fifty of his stories have been published in venues such as Year’s Best SF, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, and Nature. His debut novel, a science fiction thriller titled Unforgettable, published by Baen Books, has been optioned by Hollywood multiple times.

Eric’s life has been filled with a variety of experiences. As the son of an immigrant from Argentina, he grew up bilingual and spent most of his childhood living in Latin America. He also lived for five years in England and became trilingual while serving a two-year mission for his church in Italy.

He majored in political science at BYU (where he sang in the Russian Choir for two years) and then got a law degree from Baylor. He did political work in Washington, D.C., for several years before shifting career tracks.

He now works as a systems administrator and programmer. Eric lives in Utah with his wife, Darci, who is an award-winning author herself, in addition to being a high school science teacher and programmer. Eric’s website is www.ericjamesstone.com.

His story, “Deniability”, appears in the Weird World War III anthology.

Tell me about yourself. Where are you from? What’s your background?

I grew up mostly outside the United States (Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, England) because my dad worked in international business. I majored in political science at Brigham Young University, got a law degree from Baylor, and then worked in politics in Washington, DC, for about five years. Twenty years ago I moved back to Utah and shifted my career to web development and systems administration, which I’ve been doing ever since.

Which of your short stories is your favorite? Why?

My favorite is “Rejiggering the Thingamajig,” originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact. It’s about a sapient T. Rex on a quest to restore the galactic teleport network with the help of an insane talking gun. I probably had more fun writing that story than any other. It probably has my best first line, too: The teleport terminal had not been built with tyrannosaurus sapiens in mind.

Tell me about a time you almost died.

When I was eight years old, my dad took me on a week-long fishing trip in Bariloche, Argentina. Because of an airline strike that canceled our flight after we got to the airport, my dad decided we would make the 1600-kilometer (1000-mile) drive from Buenos Aires. That night, as we drove along a two-lane highway, a tractor-trailer truck driving the opposite direction came over a hill in front of us, and it was driving down the middle of the highway. My dad swerved off the road to avoid being hit, our tires hit gravel, and I’m not sure exactly how it happened after that, but the car spun through 360 degrees and stalled, leaving us facing our original direction in the wrong lane. Since truckers often traveled in convoys, my dad’s biggest worry was that another truck was going to come over the hill and smash into us, but fortunately there were no following vehicles. My dad got the car started again, and we continued on our way. As we were heading home after our week of fishing, we found the place where our near-accident occurred. In the daylight, we could see our skid-marks on the pavement — and the sheer cliff at the side of the road that we barely avoided falling over.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500

What’s your favorite book? Why?

My favorite book is Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, because it’s beautifully written and the story is emotionally powerful. I will be proud if I ever manage to write anything even half as good as that novel.

Story’s Soundtrack

Each of the stories in this volume evoked certain themes and emotions that can sometimes be approximated with music. The below video is the editor’s best interpretation of the feelings and themes that this author’s story evoked. Please note that this is only the editor’s interpretation. The author did not know this portion of the blog post existed until the editor published it.