BUREAU 13: Judgment Night

So if a vampire owned a herd of cows and only drank their blood, then no laws had been broken and the Bureau will have to defend the vampire against a mob of angry villagers.

Hot damn, now you're talking! This is exactly what the Wolf Pack was supposed to be. Now I knew that with enough effort I could get the novel there, but I liked the tone of this. It resonated in my head and I made a decision.

Swiftly, I started creating an FBI investigation team: the dashingly handsome Ed Alvarez, a Private Detective from Chicago. Ed looks a lot like me, and talks like me, and eats at my favorite restaurants, but then this was only my second novel.

Then came, Jessica Taylor, the sexy telepath that Ed was secretly in love with. She knew (of course), but he didn't know that she knew. Now I could have fun with that. Ah, love!

Okay, Mindy was perfect so she would stay as Mindy, but I'd give her a special weapon. Nice. Richard stayed the same, except I combed his wild mane of hair and removed his nickname since it was too distracting. As the team was FBI, they had ample monetary support from the government and thus no need of a financial backer, so George gained fifty pounds and became a war veteran from Viet 'Nam, an overweight warrior, still hard as steel in spite of the passing years. Pausing for a moment, I gazed thoughtfully at my alligator shoes, and out of the blue came Amigo, their pet lizard with a very big secret. As a military historian, it was obvious that having only one wizard was poor tactics, insufficient firepower, so I added Raul Horta (as strange a character as I have ever penned), and then rounded them off with a big, beefy, redheaded Irish Catholic priest, Father Michael Xavier Donaher. After all, somebody had

to do the exorcisms. (remember the movie that started this?)

While my friends gamed, I furiously wrote in the corner, cackling in delight, knowing I had a winner here. That is, if I could get the book rights.

A month later I finally tracked down Richard Tucholka, the creator of Bureau 13, introduced myself to him in the middle of the dealer's room at a SF convention and passed over the first chapter of a novel. (included in this volume - 'Initiation'.)

Knowing of me from the hit SF/Humor novel "Illegal Aliens", Richard decided to read a page or two of the sample chapter right there. When he lowered the last page with tears of laughter in his eyes, he extended his hand and said let's a make a deal. Shazam, I had the complete rights to writing Bureau 13 novels.

Over time, I gave him back the short story rights as other great writers wanted in on the fun; Lawrence Watt-Evans, Mercedes Lackeys, and such. But the novels were mine alone and I ran with the ball.

After the convention I got hard at work and two months later, I sent the first book, originally titled simply 'Bureau 13' now called '#1 - Judgement Night' to Ace Books in New York. They called back in record time and offered a three book contract. Three? Sure! Then they delivered Dorian Vallejo, the son of the genius Boris Vallejo, as my cover artist. Superb stuff. If the paintings are ever on display at a SF convention, go see the original oils.