For some reason, my erratic spam filter flagged what is one of the finest compliments any reader has every given my writing. Because this comment did not appear at first, I want to turn the spotlight on it.
The reader is kind enough to mention a specific element of my writing, something I took pains to do carefully, but with no thought that anyone but the muse and myself would ever notice or care. One reader, at least, noticed.
This is from a comment by a reader with the stellar yet batrachian name of Astrofrog:
Another aspect that I would like to personally thank you for is your use of actual astrophysical wonders as the settings. So much of science fiction merely places the action around some boring G-type star, or perhaps a red dwarf, as such stars are hosts to exoplanets and it is, I suspect, difficult for most writers to envision a reason beyond tourism or a scientific expedition for a journey to an O-type binary, a Wolf-Rayet star, an AGB star, a Herbig Haro object, or the like. Having a keen interest in these phenomena, the question of how to bring awareness of them to the wider human community – for communication of scientific discoveries to the interested lay populace is one of the many functions of science fiction – has long troubled me. You did so with aplomb.
Thank you very much. I am touched. Read the remainder of this entry »
