John Shirley

"I'm growing up in public, growing up in public, growing up in public — with my pants down." — Lou Reed Kamikaze, streaking from the sky! Crash and burn! Thus, the fanatical rage-fueled Kamikaze flight of yours truly in 1976, as I pilot the Japanese Zero of my career, teeth-gritting as I arc my aircraft down to destroy itself on the rusting plates of the steampunkish Jules-Vernean battleship that was science-fiction. Impact! Then — a smoking wreckage.