Flash news! Tempest in a Teardrop exclusive! Thirty-second interview with The-Mountain-Who-Writes himself, Mr. Larry Correia! The New York Times best-selling author is holding a book tour for his latest novel, Son of the Black Sword. We caught up with him at his Seattle stop.

Mr. Correia (pronounced Korea) is perhaps best known for his Monster Hunter International series. He described several of his upcoming projects.

Author John Ringo liked the Monster Hunter universe so much that he whipped out a novel’s worth of fan fiction for it on one of his days off. Larry liked that so much he wrote a novel’s worth of notes tying in previously un-revealed Monster Hunter Lore. Baen liked the combined draft so much they’ll be publishing it as the novel Monster Hunters Grunge. It is a story set in the 1980s which explores some history of the current series. I’m pretty sure there will be monsters and guns, too.

Mr. Correia is also co-authoring a book with the beautiful-but-evil space princess herself, Sarah Hoyt. The book features a young Julie Shackleford walking the path that will lead to the character that fans of the Monster Hunter universe are familiar with. Larry revealed a few more details we aren’t including here. Mystery is part of the series, after all.

Larry described these two books as spin-offs set in the Monster Hunter world.

He is also working on the next book in the Monster Hunter series itself. Owen Pitt, the main character, runs afoul of transdimensional beings and the adventure takes place “somewhere else, like not on Earth.” We look forward to the book and his many blog posts explaining how he is not, in fact, appropriating interdimensional alien culture for his own personal profit.

Larry has started a new Grimnoir Trilogy set in the ’50s. Just as the original series was a loving tribute to ’30s and ’40s detective fiction, the new one will be an homage to golden age science fiction. We have been assured, repeatedly, that nothing of that era is worth reading, so Larry confessed it “may be one of those trilogies that run for 4 or 5 books.” He’ll use the extra pages to rebut the critics, in great detail, and explain the dimension they can go vacation in. The doorway normally opens while using the commode, but we’re sure Larry would help them get there regardless.

Yes, this will surely prompt even more blog posts, once it hits the shelves! Yayness!

Baen Books will be offering a collection of Mr. Correia’s short fiction stories entitled “Book of Monsters.” We are offering an exclusive look at some possible cover art.

It may or may not be “live” by the time this goes to press. Codex drew it during the presentation and Larry snapped a pic. Larry would never intentionally rob us of our exclusive. Straw Larry would do it in a heartbeat.

In addition to all the books, there are computer games, board games, television, and movie possibilities in the works. Some are more concrete than others, and some he explicitly asked us not to mention on the web. There will also be another installment of his ongoing internet saga The Christmas Noun. Clearly, his efforts during the Hugo Awards fiasco have resulted in his career being flushed down the toilet, as so many Prominent People predicted.

Larry seemed okay with that. His back-up career plan is playing World of Tanks, competitively.

When he called on us to ask a question, Codex calmly and professionally asked what his favorite light anti-tank weapon was. We didn’t have any repeats of the Dave Kellett (Sheldon Comics) meeting at Sasquan. We really do learn and grow from our experiences! Larry seemed a little surprised at the question, as he hadn’t thought about it a lot and wasn’t that familiar with them. He once carried a SPG-9 up several flights of stairs, however, so we’re going with that. I wanted to report that he didn’t have a favorite because he was spoiled for choice, but Codex explained all about ethics in journalism, and making up fake quotes. Something I may already have done in this article.

We’re grateful to Larry Correia for the clarification of this issue. Now you know what weapon Larry the Totoro-Bear Thing will be carrying in our comic in the future.

We wish we’d had more time, but the store was closed and the line for book signings was long. Hopefully we’ll run into Mr. Correia at a future convention. We’ll just have to settle for his novels in the meantime.