A book you should buy

I've promised to discuss those two deadlines I was working hard to meet.  The first (not the one related to my trip to Florida) was a project I mentioned a long time ago:  the afterword to the upcoming Baen combined edition of The Man Who Sold the Moon and Orphans of the Sky. 

I really wanted to write this afterword, because The Man Who Sold the Moon was a very important book to me.  I also feel a huge amount of fan-boy squee at the thought of my name, however small, on the same cover with Robert A. Heinlein. 

Come September, when the book is due, I'll get to see just such a cover. 

This essay was very hard for me to write, for reasons I explain in it.  I believe it's one of the better essays I've ever written, so I hope you buy the book and read it.

Here are the first two sentences of the piece, all that I'll show of it.

I'm going to tell you something I've never told anyone:  The Man Who Sold the Moon helped save my life.  Really.

Intrigued?  I hope so.

For the rest, pick up the book.