Introduction
JOHN RINGO
To be clear, Joe Buckley is not only a real person, but a really great guy.
Unless you meet him online.
Joe is one of those people who in person is very kind, caring and inoffensive, and online suddenly changes into, well, not quite a troll but rather sarcastic and, alas, it must be said, occasionally obnoxious.
Furthermore, back in the Elder Days of the Internet (not the very elder days of war dialing or the slightly less elder days of BBS and GEnie but elder nonetheless), when the concept of every website having a forum, Facebook, et cetera was not even a gleam in the eye of a Stanford dropout, Joe used to frequent one of the very first web forums, called Baen’s Bar. It had been created at the behest of Baen Books founder Jim Baen specifically so he could have long conversations “of cabbages and kings” with his authors and their fans. Joe was a frequent poster, as was I.
In Joe’s case, however, his Internet persona tended to rub certain authors the wrong way. They knew he was a fan and many of his comments were on point, however . . .
See above.
Then Joe Buckley was immortalized in flaming death aboard the RMS Cutthroat (along with several other poor people who had the audacity to nil David Weber during a cutthroat spades game. None of whom even KNEW Joe Buckley.)
And thus the legend was born. I, ahem, admit to some expansion thereof.
Eventually it got to the point of this remembered post from Baen’s Bar:
To anyone who knows.
I’m planning my first submission to Baen Publishing. I’ve followed all the formatting guidelines and it’s already been professionally edited. No guarantees but fingers crossed. However, I have one question:
Who is “Joe Buckley” and is it required to kill him in the book to get published by Baen?
Sincerely,
Xxxxx
(The answer by the way is: No, but it helps.)
Enough idling. Time to Roast Joe. Again and again and . . .