Derek Waters

People are proud to be from Baltimore. In any industry you work in, you need support to survive. And this city has that support for anyone who was born here or lived here. And it also gives you the feeling, 'Oh, I stand for this place. And if I do something I'm not proud of, I might not make my town proud.' And I want to make Baltimore proud.

The historical novelist has to consider what has actually happened, while the SF writer is dealing in possibilities, but they are both in the business of imagining a world unlike our own and yet connected to it.

What cracks me up is people who think I don't take baseball seriously. It's the most important thing in my life. They don't know how hard it is for me to get a bad game out of my mind. I still can't, but I'm getting better.