The Heavy Hand of the Editor
New York City¸ 1938: Richard Blakemore¸ hardworking pulp writer by day and the masked vigilante only known as the Silencer by night¸ has faced many a horror in his day. But few of them can match the terror of the blank page. Especially since Donald A. Stuart¸ the upstart young editor of an upstart young magazine called Stunning Science Stories ¸ has already rejected Richard's story "The Icy Cold of Space" four times. Stuart demands changes that Richard does not want to make. Worse¸ he also holds Richard's story hostage. Unless Stuart permanently rejects the story¸ Richard cannot sell it elsewhere. There are a lot of shady practices in the pulp business¸ but Stuart's actions are beyond the pale even for the wild west of publishing. And so the Silencer decides to pay Stuart a visit to put the fear of God into an editor who believes himself to be one. This is a novelette of 10800 words or approx. 38 print pages in the Silencer series¸ but may be read as a standalone. Any resemblances to editors¸ writers and magazines living¸ dead or undead are entirely not coincidental.