*H’ard Starts: The Early Waldrop* reveals the genesis of Howard Waldrop, including six fanzine stories and five professional stories that have never appeared in any other collection.

The collection includes:

• Sword-and-sorcery adventures from 1960s fanzines, plus a hardboiled alien-fighter story first published by a nineteen-year-old Waldrop himself.
• Two personal essays from *Crawdaddy!*, a first professional sale to *Analog*, and previously uncollected stories of deep-space quests and time-travel tragedies.
• Reports from 1970s conventions and communes, describing costume contests, escapades, an in-person meeting with George R. R. Martin, and the screenplays of M. M. Moamrath.
• A sketch submitted to *The Red Skelton Show*, two one-act plays, and a novelette, “Davy Crockett Shoots the Moon.”

Each of these four sections is introduced by part of a 20,000-word interview in which Waldrop discusses how his career began and the writers, editors, and fans who were there at the start.