Science fiction, short story, time travel & dinosaurs

Many years ago, late 80's to early 90's I read a book of short stories and enjoyed it immensely. Of course, I promptly forgot the author's name and the title of the book.

In the story I remember best insane people caused dinosaurs to go extinct by hunting them with slingshots - very big slingshots in some cases of course. Because they were insane they could travel through time and dino hunting was a nice diversion from time in the insane asylum.

The only other thing I remember is that there was a fly on the cover of the book and one story featured a fly prominently.
Any ideas on who wrote this story or any other info on it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Wow, that sounds so distinctive. Hope someone here knows it for you!

Your description reminds me of the short story "A sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury, but it probably isn't it.

>3 tinymouse2:

Definitely not. That's a very memorable story, and from the subject line I suspected it too, but it's definitely not this.

Maybe "Paradox Lost" by Fredric Brown? The plot summary sounds promising. The ISFDB says that the story appeared in numerous places. You could follow the links from that last page to see covers, and maybe find the book with the right cover.

Aha, the story appears in a Brown collection with a fly on the cover:



Should be easy to find a copy on abebooks.

Thank you very much. This is exactly what I was looking for. Can't wait to reread this.

Happy to help.

Yes, this is the story. I have it in my collection but is in the NESFA Choice series:
From These Ashes: The Complete Short SF (Science Fiction) of Fredric Brown.
good story