I (Preston) published a version of this article on my Substack back in early April. If you want the early scoop about my writing projects, that’s a good place to subscribe (for free).
A couple months ago when we were building up momentum to talk about the Kickstarter for East Texas University: Fresh Blood, I posted a poll on the game’s Facebook group. In the poll, I asked in what other media they’d like to see ETU, and the top two votes were a graphic novel and fiction. Little did fans know that we had both of those things lined up. The Chickens in the Mist graphic novel makes a big splash with its art and is a big part of the Kickstarter. However, faaaaaar down on the page under “Add-ons” is an option to add “One Crazy Night at the Pizza Barn.” Since we haven’t talked about that nearly as much as Chickens in the Mist, I thought I’d fill you in here.
One Crazy Night at the Pizza Barn is like my own ETU concept album. It’s about four members of an ETU “study group.” Each member has their own “spotlight” adventure in an individual story, but all four stories overlap one night at the Pizza Barn. I may be the only one who sees it, but each of these stories also has its own theme, and each is told in a slightly different way.
Sleep Learning is “Kyle’s story” as told from the point of view of his best friend, Marcus. Even though this is Kyle’s spotlight story, since it’s also the one that kicks things off, it also serves as an introduction to all four members of the study group. The title evokes all sorts of ideas for ETU mayhem, which would be correct.
Chaps’ Horse is Audrey’s story. This one was a personal challenge to myself because it’s based original ETU artwork of the “rodeo queen.” She was always drawn as a buxom cowgirl in chaps… even in the middle of campus or in the library. It frankly drove me up the wall that we leaned so heavily into a stereotype. So, I wrote a story explaining how and why she wore what she did. By the time I was done, Audrey went from my least favorite ETU archetype to my most favorite. This one is told from Audrey’s point of view with several flashbacks, which were tricky to write.
What I Remember is Marcus’s spotlight story, so in a way he gets two, even though I consider Sleep Learning as Kyle’s. This one is told in something like free verse, so once again the storytelling is very different from the others. My original, vague idea had been that it would be about Marcus going to a party and meeting a girl who ended up being a vampire. I never could get into the swing, so I set it aside for a year or more. When I came back to it I started over and the words just flowed onto the page. I wrote the whole thing in about 36 hours. Yes, it’s been proofread and tweaked here and there, but it’s pretty much the same story that blossomed in my brain.
The final story, Becca, Becca, Becca is Cassie’s tale. (Triva: for the longest time I was literally going to call it Cassie’s Tale.) For the longest time I only knew what I wanted the theme to be. While brainstorming, I started drawing connections between this story and the others until suddenly fireworks lit off in my brain. Of course the plot would be about [redacted]. In retrospect, how could it be anything else? I’m super proud of how it ties together all four stories into a single, cohesive tale.
One Crazy Night at the Pizza Barn also includes two bonus stories, both set in Pinebox but before ETU was ever published (and thus unrelated to our study group). The One that Got Away was first published in the 12 to Midnight anthology Buried Tales of Pinebox, Texas. The Angry Stick appeared in Haunted: 11 Tales of Ghostly Terror. The latter is out of print, so with One Crazy Night I thought I’d collect all my ETU/Pinebox fiction in one volume. The Kickstarter says that the page count is 32 pages, but that’s because Pinnacle is erring on the side of caution since layout isn’t finalized. Based on word count it’s about a 2.5 hour read, so far more than 32 pages.
