My story, “Casey at the Bat,” is not really about “a World War II Brigade” (!)(I don’t know who came up with something that lame) but the story of Jedburgh Team Casey, an OSS three-man sabotage unit dropped into France the night of June 6, 1944. Among them is an American lieutenant named James Leets, who was featured in long, long ago’s “The Master Sniper.” (1980) Readers may remember he had a bad hip; “Casey at the Bat” tells how he got it.

I wrote back and asked if we might not see a bookfull of Hunter’s short fiction one of these days, suggesting he had drawer-fulls… but, Hunter replied, no…

I’m really not good at it. I only write it when somebody makes me a cash offer for X by a deadline of X for $XXXX. Otherwise, I have no motivation and the truth is, I’m really pretty awful at it. You’ll see that this isn’t really a short story but a novel squished together to fit in a collection, and that it could have several more parts. Someone once said of one of my stories, “It’s like a shark in a swimming pool. He’s just desperate to get out, to have the room to be himself.” Meanwhile in other news, I’m trying to be a real professional writer and am grinding out, page by page, “Dead Zero” for Simon and Schuster in January. It’s more of a modern thriller, set in today’s international arena with the war on terror as a backdrop and I believe it’s going quite well. On the other hand, it’s a very strange feeling to see the cover and read the catalogue copy before you’re really sure how the book is going to end.

Note the casual mention of a new book at the end…

If you’re lucky enough to be within visiting distance, Stephen Hunter will be appearing at The Book Center on next Saturday, April 24, in the early afternoon.

Hunter will give a short talk at 1 pm in the Allegheny Arts Council Community Room, 9 N. Centre, then he’ll sign books at the Book Center.

Email questions to bkcenter@pennswoods.net.

Here is Weyman Swagger’s obituary. A photographer by trade, Swagger wrote this great article about his relationship with Hunter, published sometime in 2007 in the Baltimore Sun.

More Imus and Hunter here….

Here’s a couple of very interesting internet sightings of Stephen Hunter:

• Power Line gets Hunter to write an essay about I, Sniper
• and TV’s favorite gun guy Michael Bane has a internet video clip of his interview of the Master Author.