{"id":2608,"date":"2013-08-24T08:00:42","date_gmt":"2013-08-24T13:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/?p=2608"},"modified":"2013-08-22T10:10:48","modified_gmt":"2013-08-22T15:10:48","slug":"rayguns-over-texas-preview-mark-finn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2013\/08\/24\/rayguns-over-texas-preview-mark-finn\/","title":{"rendered":"Rayguns Over Texas preview: Mark Finn"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Cover<\/a>

Cover by Rocky Kelley<\/p><\/div>\n

As we barrel toward the August 29 premiere of\u00a0Rayguns Over Texas\u00a0<\/em><\/a>at\u00a0LoneStarCon 3<\/a>\u00a0(aka the 71st Annual World Science Fiction Convention) in San Antonio, I am presenting book excerpts, one contributor per day.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s selection comes from Mark Finn<\/a>‘s\u00a0\u201cTake a Left at the Cretaceous.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In a Texas where dinosaurs roam,\u00a0Baxter and his dog traverse dangerous\u00a0terrain to deliver packages in\u00a0Mark Finn\u2019s wild science fiction\u00a0adventure littered with guns, bikers,
\nand lots of action.<\/p>\n

Right now, the rangers at the checkpoint were the least of my\u00a0worries. Highway 85 wasn\u2019t particularly pristine before the gate opened,\u00a0but now it had thoroughly gone to shit. Somehow a herd of runners,\u00a0carrion eaters or maybe eggers from the looks of it, were all bunched\u00a0up and picking the roadside clean. Some other driver had startled them\u00a0and they were now in full flight mode, running down the road, darting\u00a0left and right, going in the same direction as me. I couldn\u2019t shoot any of\u00a0them because they\u2019d fall right in my path and make the road a bloody\u00a0mess to get over and make me even more late than I already was. It was\u00a0getting dark, and even seven miles out, no one hung around after the\u00a0sun went down. All I could do was honk at the bastards, which only\u00a0aggravated them further. So I\u2019m driving, literally, in the middle of a\u00a0flock of these things, at about twenty miles per hour. I can\u2019t get them to\u00a0move out of my way, and they keep banging into my left and right side\u00a0panels and squawking that I won\u2019t give them the road. To them, I\u2019m just\u00a0another runner. Stupid dinosaurs.<\/p>\n

Steve was going nuts. He stood, rigid as a statue, in the front seat,\u00a0his nose trembling with indignation as he barked wildly at the runners\u00a0who were in his space. If he\u2019d had a tail, it could have been wagging\u00a0like a windshield wiper. I was tempted to let him out, but these things\u00a0were a little big for him (not that it would have stopped him in the\u00a0slightest) and he didn\u2019t have his armor on. No fear, that dog. He was\u00a0part pit bull, part dogo, and part something else, probably Rottweiler,\u00a0from the size of him. That would also explain the lung capacity. His\u00a0barks were deafening in the cab, and I was sick of hearing it. We were\u00a0both miserable at this point; something had to give.<\/p>\n

And give it did. The runners abruptly made a sharp right turn,\u00a0and suddenly, I was free of them. I hit the brakes and cut the engine.\u00a0Steve was still barking and I grabbed him and scratched his ears as\u00a0I searched for the predator. How a Rex can be so big and yet so hard\u00a0to spot is one of the most irritating things on a long list of irritating\u00a0things about dinos.<\/p>\n

Steve had just settled down when I felt the footsteps up through\u00a0the floorboards and saw it, trotting across the road about a hundred\u00a0yards in front of us. The Rex gave Cee Cee a passing glance, but was\u00a0much more interested in the bite-sized snacks that were actively
\nrunning away from it at that moment. It broke into a gallop, and Steve\u00a0strained against his collar, but only somewhat. He knew I\u2019d never let\u00a0him out to chase a tyrannosaur. Damn fool dog. I think if I ever let\u00a0him, he\u2019d actually take a run at one.<\/p>\n

Steve relaxed and licked my face. \u201cOkay, boy,\u201d I said. \u201cThanks for\u00a0scaring them off for me.\u201d He panted and grinned in that way that\u00a0bulldogs do. I fished around for a dog biscuit and gave him one. As an\u00a0afterthought, I had one myself. Mexican made. All natural. They \u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0use cows anymore. Cows are extinct.<\/p>\n

When the tremors subsided, I put Cee Cee back in gear and we\u00a0slapped leather for the border.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Excerpt from \u201cTake a Left at the Cretaceous\u201d \u00a9 2013 by Mark Finn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we barrel toward the August 29 premiere of\u00a0Rayguns Over Texas\u00a0at\u00a0LoneStarCon 3\u00a0(aka the 71st Annual World Science Fiction Convention) in San Antonio, I am presenting book excerpts, one contributor per day. Today\u2019s selection comes from Mark Finn‘s\u00a0\u201cTake a Left at … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-rayguns-over-texas"],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n