Last week, Justine and I were privileged to go on our Razorbill publisher’s sailboat for July 4. Tonight, we got a taste of fireboat!

Back in 2000, when John Oakes was the owner of Four Walls Eight Windows, he published my adult sf novel Evolution’s Darling. We’ve kept in touch ever since, and he still invites me to his annual fireboat party.

This is an excellent thing, because fireboats are big, powerful tugboats armed with water cannon! A fireboat party consists of cruising around Manhattan drinking beer, eating sausage, and ocassionally firing the water cannon straight up into the air.

This is what a bunch of publishing people on a fireboat look like:

They look like pretty much regular publishing people, but notice the water cannon over their heads. There’s something special about water cannon, something that adds a certain frisson to a publishing party. Maybe it’s the fact that at any moment, John Oakes may fire the water cannon, and metric tons of seawater will fall on all your heads!

This is my artistic shot of the Statue of Liberty, taken from the front of the fireboat. (This was a peaceful moment, before the water cannon had been fired.)

I wish I had pictures of the water cannon shooting into the air. But something about having metric tons of seawater falling on my head and being out of batteries made that impossible. Trust me, though, it was funny seeing all those publishing people trying not to get wet.

Next year I’ll bring an umbrella and fresh batteries. I promise.

One more thing: Last year, John sold Four Walls Eight Windows to Avalon Publishing Group. He’s working there now and publishing much cool sf and other stuff. Please go buy his books so that there will be a fireboat party next year!