Because of these several impediments, as well as other technical difficulties, you will find typos and occasional replication of text. In our humble opinion, typos show that the logs are of *live* chats, not canned interviews, and minimal editing of these logs has taken place.

[Cybling] folks...please Welcom Amy Thomson!
[Amy_Thomson] Hi there!
[RedRaptor] hello Amy
[IWant2BFree] Hello and Welcome
[Riesengrosser] Hello
[Cybling] Amy Thomson is the author of Through Alien Eyes, The Color of Distance, and Virtual Girl. She won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1994.
[KimmoAway] Hi, Amy.
[Cybling] Amy's here to answer any questions we may have so I'll start out.
[Cybling] Amy ... the John Campbell award is pretty prestigious...which book got you nominated for it?
[Amy_Thomson] The John W. Campbell Award goes to the best new writer in the field. It is voted on by the same people who vote on the hugo awards.
[Cybling] Now as I take it, the Campbell award is for new authors, and they are eligible for 5 years after their first novel publication, or is it any publication.
[Cybling] Or am I wrong there.
[Amy_Thomson] Authors are eligible for two years after their first publication, whether that publication is for a novel or short story.
[Riesengrosser] Amy" What did you do before you started writeing?
[Amy_Thomson] My first book was Virtual Girl, and that was also my first fiction publication, so I guess that would be what I won the Campbell for, though the award goes to the author not the work.
[Cybling] Ok.
[Amy_Thomson] Before I started writing, I was in college at the University of Idaho, studying agriculture, of all things.
[Riesengrosser] "Amy" Can you live from your writing?
[KimmoAway] Here's Amy's Amazon link as well...
[KimmoAway] Amazon Link.
[Amy_Thomson] Actually, yes. There was a lot of biology, and basic things like soils and drainage. It really helps me design planets and aliens.
[RedRaptor] makes sense
[Amy_Thomson] Riesengrosser, not really, I have other income that helps me afford to write!
[Cybling] How to Unfairly Judge a Book by Page 119 is a Panel you were on yesterday Amy.
[Riesengrosser] "Amy" Thats good, at least you know what workes and what doesn`t
[Cybling] Can you tell us briefly...why Page 119 and not page 1?
* Serenah_SS_Suchomimus thinks: Riesengroáer? Riesengroáer what? heh
[Riesengrosser] Amy for example i alwazs hate books with maps of Planets that just would not work in real life!
[Riesengrosser] Serenah
[Amy_Thomson] Well, that panel was sort of a literary Pepsi Challenge. The point was to judge a book by the writing, and by page 119, the major characters are introduced, and the author has settled into their style. So reading a page on or near 119 gives you a good sense of their style.
[Serenah_SS_Suchomimus] yes@rg?
[Riesengrosser] "Serena" Thats a nickname I picked up becouse my real name is Ralf Grosser
* Serenah_SS_Suchomimus nods
[RedRaptor] yeah, I always look in the middle of a bookto decide if I'd want it
[Amy_Thomson] Yeah, I have to really micromanage the planetary and solar system set-up before I write, even though most of that stuff never really shows up in the book.
[Amy_Thomson] Sorry, two threads going on at once. I'd rather talk planetary and alien design, though lit crit is fun too.
[Cybling] Okay then planetary and alien design it is.
[Cybling] I've always wondered why overly large insects are not considered "good" aliens by some of the older SF fans.
[Serenah_SS_Suchomimus] Cybling: Insects in general have a bad reputation
[Cybling] lol
[Serenah_SS_Suchomimus] It's human prejudice.
[Serenah_SS_Suchomimus] :P
[Kimmo] Maybe cause overly large insects just won't work structurally, too
[DD-B] Overly large insects vilate the cube-square law.
* Kimmo high-fives DD-B
[Amy_Thomson] Basically, the terran insect circulatory system doesn't work above a certain size. Insects don't have a heart, their circulatory fluid just kinds of sloshes around in there. (
[Amy_Thomson] (I keep bees, among my other bad habits!)
[DD-B] (waves back)
[Cybling] How big is too big then. I know in the movie MIMIC they gave their mutant roaches Lungs. Would that have worked?
[Cybling] Just giving them lungs?
[Serenah_SS_Suchomimus] lol
[Amy_Thomson] Hmm, I don't actually know the upper limit. There's an excellent book on that very subject called Diatoms to Dinosaurs by someone name Whitmore or Whitemore. I suggest reading that!
[Amy_Thomson] Bigger insects work in environments with higher oxygen, which is why you got those honkin' big dragonflies back in the early dinosaur times.
[Cybling] Oh great. I'll take a look at it...it covers size problems and feeding habits I take it?
[Cybling] The book I mean, and thanks for the info on the dino-insects.
[Amy_Thomson] Diatoms to dinosaurs talks about biomechanics, which is basic animal design.
[Cybling] Okay great.
[Cybling] I have another question about this, unless someone else here wants to break in?
[Cybling] I read an article somewhere once...
[Cybling] that postulated that similar forms would evolve everywhere to serve similar purposes and used the...
[Cybling] marsupials of New Zealand and Australia as examples.
[Amy_Thomson] Yes, that's why sharks and porpoises look so alike. There are ideal forms for each kind of ecological niche.
[Amy_Thomson] I postulated that there were shark-like creatures on the world of Tiangi, where The Color of Distance is set.
[Cybling] Should we be looking for anthropmorphic intelligent aliens then? Are the ST and SW face-aliens not that far off?
[Kimmo] Amy, I found the book title but not the author, it says McGowan.
[Kimmo] Amazon link.
[Amy_Thomson] I think that intelligent life can take many forms. The basic shape tends to evolve before intelligence. So what environment the alien evolved to intelligence makes more difference than the actual brain.
[Amy_Thomson] Kimmo, I'm foggy on the title. Search under biomechanics, you'll find something interesting.
[Cybling] So we could see intelligent octopi-type people, and sentient gas bags, as well as the occasional bipedals?
[Amy_Thomson] Possibly. I'm currently writing a book with intelligent sailboats. It was a bit of a stretch, but I think I've made it work.
[Amy_Thomson] They are not "engineered," they evolved that way.
[Cybling] that sounds great! I really like that idea!
[Cybling] Folks we have about 5 minutes before we have to let Amy get back to this very exciting convention. Do we have any final questions on planet building or alien life forms in writing?
[Cybling] Okay, then we'll just have to ask Amy back out in the future to have a little longer chat with us about this.
[Cybling] Folks let's thank Amy from spending the time with us to let us know a little more about her work.
* Cybling applauds
[Cybling] Thank you so much Amy!
[Amy_Thomson] You're welcome. I had a great time. [insert glyph of me curtseying here]
[Riesengrosser] @-----]----
[RedRaptor] thanks for being here