"I can never recall how many weeks or months I spend on false starts before I find one story. Then there are the almost stories, the ones that were going well until they were interrupted for the lack of some small idea, a new twist, or something to get them going again. Such was the case with The Gnats of Knotty Pine, a story about the so-called sport of hunting taken from the animal's point of view. The story starts the day before hunting season. As the animals gather for a meeting, they hope to outwit the men with guns and save their skins. But after a great deal of talk and not one practical suggestion, the meeting ends in silence. I did no better than the animals, and Gnats ended up on the shelf with the other almost-stories. Years later, while I was mowing the lawn one evening, swarms of buzzing gnats came at me from out of the grass; they seemed to have a plan of attack, always going for my eyes and ears. Fighting them off and pushing the mower at the same time was impossible, and I soon fled the scene. But, that relentless, overwhelming gnat attack was just what my hunting story needed. An all out attack by a few billion buzzing gnats