It's interesting that you would have liked more anecdotes. I could
have made the book twice as long but I thought that would make it
boring and I was in a hurry for fear of becoming disabled before it
was published. Irrational, I know.
Let's just say I was captivated, but I have a lot of natural
resonance/affinity for your subject (general place-time).
I admit that it WAS a treat to be able to take it all in one long gulp
which was a close call.... I was done with my meal and on my 3rd ice-tea
and ready to pack it in when I realized the remainder of the pages
weren't all full (what with back-matter and all) and soldiered on to the
end.
I might even find this an excuse to make it to the weekly meeting of the
congregation just to prise a few more anecdotes from you.
Thanks too for the plan to pass the book along to your friend.
I doubt it will inspire him to write his own but in it's own way is
equally interesting (at least to me!).
Your point about authors being interested in reader feedback reminds me
of an open-ended conversation with our own Tim Taylor (aka Ramick)
regarding the role of "audience" in poetry/writing.
In my own experience the timesqew for regularly published writers seems
to cause them some annoyance with fans. Unless they are on a riff of a
10 part Trilogy by the time I have read one of their works, it is likely
they were done with it's creation years before... at best they were
bouncing back and forth with Editor/Publisher for a year or more from
their final draft and their final draft might have been a year or more
past a "pretty good draft" and are NOW well into their next novel (or
next dozenth short piece) so discussing the characters/setting/conceit
of their LAST work (or something from a decade past) seems to be at
least a mild annoyance to them.
I have always been fascinated with Scientific/Technical people who
became fiction authors, whether they write tech/sci fiction or not.
One of my favorites is Robert Forward, and LANL has it's own
contemporary Ian Tregellis
<http://www.lanl.gov/careers/stories/spotlight/ian-tregillis.php> to
offer up in that category.
- Steve
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