In the early 1990s Byron Preiss and company were packaging a series of anthologies for Dell, and I came to their attention when I wrote "The Name of Fear" for The Ultimate Dracula. They were happy with my contribution, so although there wasn't time for me to write anything for The Ultimate Frankenstein or The Ultimate Werewolf, they invited me to write stories for the four anthologies in second round, and I wound up in three of them. I didn't manage to come up with anything for The Ultimate Witch, but I did hit The Ultimate Alien, The Ultimate Dragon, and The Ultimate Zombie.

"Larger Than Life" was my story for The Ultimate Zombie.

It was actually my second attempt; I started a story called "Undying Love," but then I decided the ending wasn't going to work, and the story was getting too gross for me, so I put it aside and wrote "Larger Than Life" instead.

I'd like to give some cute little anecdote about where I got the idea for the story, but the truth is, I don't know. After abandoning the hideously morbid "Undying Love" I wanted to do something light, but how I decided to write about a movie crew -- I dunno. It just happened.

Wherever it came from, I was happy with the story, the folks at Preiss were happy with it, it was published, and I was happy with the check they sent me. I liked the story enough that I included it in my collection Celestial Debris.

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