A Call To Arms & RECOMMENDED READING, OLD SCHOOL
First, an open call to friends and fans: I'm in need of a web mage. You don't need to be such a Matrix-Hacking E-Ninja that you can rearrange the very fabric of my web site. Someday I envision a big shiny overhaul. For now, the basic site is fine, but I have a regular if small flood of updates and additions to sections such as Short Fiction, the Photo Gallery and Art Gallery.
My current Web-God Master is great, but he's expensive and he's busy, and I can hear him roll his eyes every time I ask him to add a new slug like "Translated into Polish" or to post the cover art for an Estonian anthology.
Anybody game?
These updates are never an emergency, just something to get to when you have the time, and I pay in free autographed copies of everything I publish while you're at the helm. Ping me at jeff@jverse.com if interested.
Back to the real fun: RECOMMENDED READING, OLD SCHOOL
It's heresy among fen, but I've never thought the Callahan stories and novels were among Spider Robinson's best work. Yes, they're engaging and cute and loaded with fun twists and ideas, but let's face it — they're cute.
It's really, really hard to resonate deeply with me with cute. That's just me. Look at what I write. Heck, I tend to hum ominous soundtracks while writing my scenes.
The Imperial March>
I've read all of the Callahan books, but I only read them once. Meanwhile there are Robinson novels like Night of Power and Mindkiller that I've read fifteen times. Why?
This seems to be a fairly common trait among the writers I know. When I'm deep into my own projects, reading a brand new novel by someone else has a way of derailing my subconscious, especially if it's a novel I like. I can't read Robert Crais without marveling at his technique and style and secretly wishing I was half as cool. It slows my own progress, which is slow enough. But I like to read. That's why I got into this crazy business. I was always a serious bookworm, and I've learned that I sleep better if I spend at least 15 minutes reading before lights out.
TV doesn't do it, movies don't do it, chit-chat with my lovely wife doesn't do it. I need words in rows on a page to get my brain into a soothed state. 
What I tend to do re-read books. Fortunately I have a massive library, so years often pass between revisiting even my greatest favorites — and as I learn and grow as a writer, I constantly find new-to-me narrative or plot tricks that make me marvel as these old masters.
Recently I've been on a Robinson kick.
For my money, Night of Power is his greatest work. This book is serious but leavened with his trademark humor, complex but easily followed, well-considered but fast-paced, and the plot is only built upon one major coincidence, which I can forgive because the scenario is so awesomely fresh even twenty-five years after Night was first published.
Mindkiller is a close second. Too many of its passages are tongue-in-cheek for what's ultimately a dark thriller, but it's original, challenging, and compact. The same must be said for post-apocalyptic Telempath. Go check 'em out.
