Microcasting! It's what we've taken to calling a Q&A. Eric Patten joins us for this one. Here are the questions:

* What's your first step in the rewriting process?

* How do you write Artificial Intelligences as characters?

* Tactful promotion: how do you get nominated for a Hugo or Nebula?

* How do you decide whether or not to take an offer from a publisher?

* Do you use a writing notebook? How, and for what?

* What methods do you use to test the "coolness" and/or viability of a story idea?

* What genre or style do you read that is outside of the one(s) in which you write?