Episode description

David Drake (author of over 60 novels of science fiction and fantasy) is today's featured guest.

Topics include: his opinion of the Amazon Kindle; his improving opinion of the future of electronic publishing; the collapse of the Borders Books Store chain, which occurred before the economic down turn; and why he urged Jim Baen into ask Eric Flint to be the first Editor-in-Chief of what has become the widely popular online magazine called Jim Baen's Universe.

Working with Newt Gingrich is also topic. Specifically how it came about that David Drake and Jim Baen helped Newt Gingrich write a World War Two thriller-type novel named 1945; why the political climate during the book's release prompted the media to universally pan the book; and how this storm of negative reviews nearly put Baen Books out of business.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the March 18, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 38 minutes]

David Drake is an author of science fiction and fantasy, and is widely considered one of the premier authors of the military science fiction sub-genre. He has written over 60 books some of which are in his Hammer's Slammers series of military science fiction, his Lord of the Isles series of fantasy novels, and his newer Republic of Cinnabar Navy series.

David graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Iowa, majoring in history and Latin. His studies at Duke University School of Law were interrupted for two years by the U.S. Army, where he served as an enlisted interrogator with the 11th Armored Cavalry in Vietnam and Cambodia. After finishing law school, he spent eight years as Assistant Town Attorney of Chapel Hill, NC. In 1980 he resigned and drove a city bus part-time for a year while doing more writing. Since 1981 he's been a full time writer. Some of his novels are available for free download in the Baen Free Library.

For relaxation David translates ancient books from the Roman Empire from their original Latin into English, many of which can be read on his website.

News in this episode: CNN's sad and somewhat pathetic confusion over which way the Earth rotates and the direction satellites orbit the Earth, as depicted in the animated graphic for their March 13, 2009 report on the orbiting space junk which temporarily endangered the International Space Station. A confusion which may result from their layoff, three months earlier, of their entire Science and Technology reporting team, including their Senior Science Reporter, Miles O'Brian.