In which I use my powers for evil good.

You know I’m a whore for the hard sci-fi, right? Totally devour the stuff. By the metric ton. It’s a big part of my free time, the sci-fi is, so I’m gonna talk about it. If you don’t read sci-fi, you can safely skip this whole entry.

I just finished a Greg Bear novel called Psychlone and it utterly sucked, and so did the last new Bear, Quantico, and, I mean, well, damn. Because I used to love Bear. Infinity Concerto was so wonderful I’ve read it thrice (I rarely re-read, plus I don’t even like fantasy). I loved Eon and Darwin’s Radio and Slant, and he just used to write such good sci-fi.

But Psychlone? Ugh. IMO the premise was weak, the characters didn’t even like themselves, and the denouement failed to satisfy. It was a terrible disappointment. It’s well-crafted and expertly written, of course, but it just didn’t work for me. I don’t think the author himself even knew quite what it was he was trying to convey, because I certainly couldn’t tell and I’m deep. (Snort.) A scientific basis for demons? Okay, fine, but please. Just… please. Finish defining your universe before you start breaking it.

So the Bear novel broke my heart and to cheer myself up I broke into the William Barton I’d bought recently and was hoarding. It’s called Acts of Conscience and I’ve devoured half of it in 24 hours… and oh, yeah, yeah, it’s good. I love Barton. Looooove him.

So I went surfing for more information, because I’ve decided I’m going to read the rest of Barton’s backlist. This year. All of it. Because that’s just how I roll when I find a yummy new-to-me author.

Enter the confusion: there were problems, people. Where the hell is the info on this guy? Not highly indexed, that’s for certain: I found a bio on Librarything combining this Barton’s work with the work of two other writers of the same name, a domain name with no content (!!!), and a google hit six pages deep about a SQL programmer who writes sci-fi and may or may not be the author I’m stalking looking for.

How in the hell, I ask you, is a devoted reader supposed to stalk learn about an author what ain’t hardly on the Innartubez whatsoevar? Christ. Man’s been published since the 70’s and there’s hardly a pinch of info on him! His wikipedia entry is comprised of fewer than one hundred words, there appears to be a 14-year hole in his release schedule, and I had to update his Librarything page myself for fuck’s sake!

I ran searches in three different engines, mined the isfdb, read the blurb in the back of the book I’ve got and triangulated the author’s town of residence with the registration on the domain name, and… hah. Gotcha.

And I emailed him.

Which is a big deal for me, ’cause I’m shy about my sci-fi authors. Once I emailed Sarah Zettel, though, and she emailed me back. But as a rule I avoid the boards where the writers hang out, and don’t send fan mail. (No comments from the peanut gallery on my use of the word ‘shy,’ now. The fact that I’d’ve walked up to Miles Davis and asked to borrow a dollar without batting an eyelash simply means that I’m not afraid of musicians. Writers are entirely different. Probably ’cause I ain’t one of them.)

Now ‘scuse me plz while I go read.