title: Troubleshooters: The Longest Joke Ever Told
author: Ian Thomas Healy
description: Ian Thomas Healy is a prolific writer who dabbles in many different speculative genres. Hes a eleven-time participant and winner of National Novel Writing Month where hes tackled such diverse subjects as sentient alien farts, competitive forklift racing, a religion-powered rabbit-themed superhero, cyberpunk mercenaries, cowboy elves, and an unlikely combination of vampires with minor league hockey. His popular superhero fiction series, the Just Cause Universe, is ever-expanding, as is his western fantasy epic The Pariah of Verigo. He is also the creator of the Writing Better Action Through Cinematic Techniques workshop, which helps writers to improve their action scenes. Ian also created the longest-running superhero webcomic done in LEGO, The Adventures of the S-Team, which ran from 2006-2012. When not writing, which is rare, he enjoys watching hockey, reading comic books (and serious books, too), and living in the great state of Colorado, which he shares with his wife, children, house-pets, and approximately five million other people. Follow him on Twitter as @ianthealy and on Facebook as Author Ian Thomas Healy.
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  # Look Inside
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _“Mac, what?”_
  
  
  _“Stress relief,” he’d said._
  
  
  _“What?” She figured out what when he picked her up and threw her over the
  back of the couch. “Hold still.”_
  
  
  _“What?” Did she even know any other words? Seemed like she didn’t._
  
  
  _“Ow!” Okay she knew another word. “Mac! No! Ow! What is that? Dang, stop it!”
  What was he smacking her with? Whatever it was, it seemed much larger than the
  wooden spoon. “Mac! No!” She tried to scramble off the couch, over it,
  something, but he put a hand on her back and held her down. “Mac!”_
  
  
  _“Better let me finish this before Ryan gets back, unless you want him to see
  you with your ass in the air getting it blistered.” Why did he sound amused?
  What was funny about this?_
  
  
  _“Mac!” she screeched. “That hurts! Ow, no more!” She could hear the swish of
  the nasty whatever, paddle, before it struck her. “Stop!”_
  
  
  _He acted as if he’d suddenly gone deaf._
  
  
  _“Mac! That hurts! Ow!”_
  
  
  _“Tha