MENTIONED IN DESPATCHES

I blame Steve Deas - I followed links from one of his archived blog posts - for reading about one of my fellow authors in the online Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, and being unable to resist checking to see if there's an entry about me. There is, and it's written by John Clute, who is a Very Smart Man.

The entry mentions a "capacity to knit heterogeneous material together", which - following a late-night discussion in the bar at Eastercon - might have a genetic basis in my old noggin. (I'd always thought it was the coffee.) The clue is what Yvonne calls the "crop circle on John's skull", but never mind that. JC picked up the hint of Zindell's Order of the Pilots informing my own Pilots future (absolutely). How many encyclopedia entries feature the words "gonzo", "euhemerist" and "multiplexly rationalized" in the same place?

The final words of the entry are: "there is no predicting his next steps." Too true. I'm working this out as I go along. My wonderful agent John Parker said a long time ago that I'll never be the kind of writer who effectively writes the same book over and over again. This is not entirely comforting to publishers.

P.S. Yes, I had to look up "euhemerist", and I had to turn to my Webster's when the OED failed me. Myths retold as history, kind of thing, meaning in this case Norse mythology. Oh, you knew that already? Respect.