Stirred But Not Slakened

I wrote too many stories with punning titles in the ’80s. It’s a disease from which I think I’ve since recovered. (At least I hope I have. You be the judge.)

But back then, I would generate ideas by flipping through a dictionary and waiting for random puns to strike me. That’s how “Stirred But Not Slakened,” which was published in 1982 in the ninth issue of Infinity Cubed, came to be.

I can’t remember which word first leapt out at me, “stirred” or “slakened,” but one of them brought to mind the old James Bond phrase. And from that pun of a title came an idea for a vampire who rose from the dead but whose hunger could not be satiated. The story opens with the question, “Have you ever seen a fat vampire?” and proceeds to show a bloodsucker with an eating disorder. It was one of the many stories I wrote in the ’80s that was merely a House of Mystery or House of Secrets story told without pictures.

That’s yet another disease from which I’ve since recovered. (Again … I hope.)