But I cogitated upon the problem and came up with a solution: someone else would plot the thing, I would pencil it, and Chris would script. This was agreed to, with two additional small requests. First that Kitty not appear (I was still smarting from how Chris handled her), and…. Dang it! I can’t remember what the other thing was.

Anyway, all was agreed, and Shooter appointed himself to write the plot, along with Denny O’Neil and Ann Nocenti. I sat back and waited for the plot to arrive.

Which it did. Obviously written by Chris. It even opened with a standard Chris trope, asking for a specific kind of aircraft without providing reference. Also, Kitty was all over it. And vital to the story!

I called Nocenti an asked what was going on. This completely violated my requests. She said Shooter and Denny and she had roughed up a plot, then given it to Chris to “polish”. In other words, as I said, to turn it into something I didn’t want to read. I said there was no way I could work on the project in this condition.

She called me “unprofessional” and hung up on me.

And that was the last I heard about it.

•••

So they say “no”. They don’t say “yes” and then double-cross me.