Summary: Warning: This episode of Sculpting God is intended for adult audiences, and has content that is probably unsuitable for children and the easily offended. Strong language, dirty euphamisms, sexual themes, and disturbing subject matter."I love deadlines. I love the wooshing noise they make as they go by." -Douglas Adams This time, it's very much a case of blown deadlines for the sake of a god product. It's also, I'm sure you're thinking, better late than never. This story turned out to be a difficult one to produce, simply becasue I hadn't looked at it in a number of years. When I did, I realized that it wasn't up to snuff for Sculpting God. "No problem," I thought, "A quick rewrite will fix that." Well, the quick rewrite wound up stretching to six weeks, and this little bugger of a story turned out to be a very difficult nut to crack. However, crack it did, and here you are - the meat of the walnut, as it were. This is the story of Rick. He's a scurrilous, irascible scoundrel, with a heart of gold. Not in the sense of being warm and fuzzy and good underneath, but in the sense of having a heart totally devoted to gold. His favorite goldmine is his shop, an entertainment venue where he vends virtual reality and manufactured novels to his latter-day escapist customers. He runs a tidy shop, he keeps his customers happy, and he always knows the right party to hit to find a pliable college girl with more cocaine than sense. Life is good. But life has a way of doing unexpected things, and the world has a way of changing around the most adaptable people. So, please step into Rick's parlor. Don't mind the bell on the door or the old fashioned cash register. Buy a manufactured novel, fresh from the computer, a first edition. Sit in the easy chair or lay out on the sofa. Strap on a helmet and a skinsuit and take a swim on Europa. He can be trusted, really. It says so on the door. He's completely upfront with his advertising. In ten foot high letters, right above the shop front, he tells you what they do in his place: "We Create Worlds." And he does it on the cheap.
