On the Appropriate Reaction to the Death of a Colleague

I might seem to be a nice person (not here, I mean, in real life -- if you're one of the few Antic Musings readers who actually know me in real life), but, really, I'm not. I'm a seething mass of undirected anger, sarcastic nastiness, and random unpleasant thoughts (smothered in creamy nougat and topped with a cherry).

So, it was entirely in character when, the other day, I had a nearly uncontrollable urge to make a post here that would say, in it's entirety, "Mistah Baen--he dead." Sure, it would be cruel and mean and not even make much sense, but it would be a cool literary allusion and would seem to be very deep.

As you might have noticed, I didn't do that. I didn't even type it up and then delete it. I'd like to think this indicates a new maturity, but I probably was just too busy.

Anyway, Jim Baen died a few days ago, two weeks after a massive stroke that left him in a coma. I didn't know him personally, but he had been one of the pillars of the SF field since long before I got into it, and his personality shaped a lot of the contemporary SF world. I feel like I should acknowledge the loss, but I also feel like I did that over on the SFBC blog. (Yes, it was a bit cold and impersonal, but I didn't really know him in the first place.) I hope Baen Books continues on as before, taking the same risks and doing the same kind of books as always. And , more personally, I hope Toni Weisskopf (whom I do know, more-or-less, and who is basically taking over Jim's job) is holding up OK and that she does the great job I know she can do as Baen's new editor-in-chief.

I'm sorry that the SF world now has a Jim Baen-sized hole in it; I didn't always like the things he did, but there was no one else who would do them. Good luck to the new Baen Books, and don't stop publishing right-wing military-porn with garish covers just because it makes me cringe.