Read Summer 2007 for Free Online Page A

won some idiosyncratic Hugos.
 SM: That’s
a good word, John. That’s a nice word.
 JS: : For example, he has
the Hugo for the Best Punctuated Novel. He has the one for Most Enthusiastic
Writer. Best Enjoyment of Dairy Products – I believe that was a Worldcon
that was held in St. Louis, so there was an agricultural theme there. Here is
an interesting one, and I think you can speak a little to this one, Nick: He
won the Hugo for Most Likely to Get Into a Bitter Argument with Isaac Asimov.
 NS: Oh, yes. Yes. Well. There was a very longstanding feud with Isaac, where
they did not get along at all, and actually it was a source of a lot of bad
blood at the dinner parties they went to. One illustration of this I remember:
My dad, my mom got Godfrey and his second wife, I think it was Cathy…
 JS: : Cathy? Cathy’s the third wife. His third wife.
 NS: Okay. I
can’t keep the chronologies straight.
 JS: : Jessica is the second
wife. Cathy’s the third wife.
 NS: Right.
 JS: : She’s
also the sixth wife.
 NS: Yeah.
 JS: : Also the ninth.
 NS: It gets messy. But as I remember, they all went to go see 2001 for the
first time, and they came out of the theater, and I remember my dad talking
about how Godfrey came out with a big, giddy smile on his face, this almost
manic look. And the only thing he said was “So much for the First Law of
Robotics!” So he did not like Isaac one bit.
 JS: : Well, Sarah,
you were the one, I believe you mentioned something about that at the librarian
level, there was some sort of bitter contest between the two to see who could
get…
 SM: …The most books published in a year. Yes. Because, of
course, Winton is known for his competitive streak. I mean, we can see that
with the Hugos. The constant scheming. And with the persistent refusal to
clarify the difference between the Nebulas and the Nebulars. So, very
competitive. And of course Isaac Asimov is tremendously prolific, astoundingly
prolific…
 JS: : Suspiciously prolific.
 SM: Even. And truly
it seems to have driven Winton almost mad that he could never catch up. He
could never write as fast as Asimov. He could never write as much as Asimov.
 JS: : I do think a part of that was the fact he would do only one type of
writing a day. And when we’re talking about doing only one type of writing a
day, we’re not talking about just writing only science fiction, for example. He
would specifically only write nouns on one day, and the next day he would go in
and fill in the verbs, and then the adjectives and so on and so forth.
 SM: An unfortunate experimental period.
 JS: : Right. And this has
problems. For one thing, he was most prolific in the time of the typewriter.
What this meant was that he would have to plan ahead where all the nouns would
be on the page. He would come back, put in all the verbs, and then go on, go
back and put in all the adjectives. And if you don’t get it right… you spend so
much time rewriting. And of course that’s where Isaac went ahead.
 NS: Was
that not, as I understand it, one of the inspirations for Mad Libs?
 SM: So Winton has always claimed.
 NS: That’s what I remember.
 JS: : This has been an argument between Winton and PSS Publishing, which are
the people who publish the Mad Libs, and had been for years. He spent tons of
money – I mean, long before Harlan Ellison was out there suing AOL.
Winton was extraordinarily litigious.
 SM: And with a competitive
streak.
 JS: : Right. So this really was a problem. Now, one of the
things that I think was interesting about the Most Likely to Get Into a Bitter
Argument with Isaac Asimov Hugo is that in fact it was a contested Hugo,
because Isaac Asimov actually won that Hugo. Which really drove Winton insane.
We went and complained; he said the fix is in, you can’t possibly get into an
argument with yourself.
 NS: But Isaac, if you know Isaac, he
certainly could.
 SM: Au contraire, Godfrey.
 JS: :
Right, Right.