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March 10, 2010

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I'll have to look for that; I've enjoyed a lot of McDevitt's other books.

complete with forms requiring an address and a pretentious clerk
The forms require a pretentious clerk? O-kay. (I read it wrong at first. :)

Do you want me to call Jack and ask him who the editor was?

Michael:
Well, despite the fact that I abhor the long form editor Hugo, I am dutifully trying to include the pertinent information whenever it's listed and sometimes, as in this one, where I think I can make a reasoned guess. If it wouldn't put you out too much, such a call would be very helpful.

Mary Aileen,
You know how some people seem to think self-publishing and self-editing will produce the same quality fiction as that put out by professional publishing houses who employ other people to do that stuff? They're so wrong. :)

time itself resists the creation of paradox, sometimes fatally for the time traveler

Time-travel stories where Time actively resists as if it were aware kind of bug me. Still I'll look for the book when it's out in paperback, since you recommend it.

Time tourism has never been so much fun or so deliciously complicated, as Shel and his friend Dave try to solve the riddle of how to locate a lost time traveler with 30,000 years of the past to choose from.

I was going to say, surely one does this the usual way (as an example of which I note Poul Anderson's The Dancer From Atlantis*) but

...time itself resists the creation of paradox, sometimes fatally for the time traveler who tries to create it

complicates the situation.

(The usual way is to look for something in history that is anachronistic and generally makes no damn sense, and then you have to weed out the many many many events that fulfill this, but the explanation of time travellers doesn't make it any more sensible)

* The title of which I incorrectly read as "The Danger From Atlantis" when I plucked it off my Dad's bookshelf as a 12 year old and found myself wondering when the danger was going to appear for half the book before I noticed what it actually said.

Jack confirms that Ginjer was the editor. Also, he likes this post. :-)

Michael:
Glad to hear both things. I've made an edit to the post.

Oh, and I gave this entry a Facebook link. I'm going to start experimenting with cross-links between FB and my blogs. Maybe I'll get a few more commenters.

Well, he probably won't like this: I think this is his worst book. It's too light, no gravitas, and the plot is even more obvious than normal. I love most of his books and read then when they arrive (rather than when they make it to the top of the to-read piles -- about eight years), and I did read this one when it arrived. I kept wondering if he was okay.

Susan... I'm going to start experimenting with cross-links

I've been doing that for some time, being the shameless huckster that I am. I don't know if it has brought me more readers, but it hasn't hurt me, as far as I can tell.

The cat version.

And now xkcd weighs in.

Susan, I guess I'm running a bit late with this, but I wanted to assure Marilee that I'm fine. As far as I know--. I should add that I've never enjoyed writing anything as much.

Thanks for letting me know, Jack!

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