Just ran into the sad news that Jerry Pournelle had passed away from a heart attack near the end of last year. He was one hell of a science fiction writer as well as being a computer columnist dating back to the heydays of Byte magazine. I found it interesting that he is given credit by some for the first author to use a word processor to write a novel. When I researched the subject I found a long list of mainly science fiction authors who might had earn that honor. For myself I knew that Asimov was given a TRS-80 that he did his writings on, as part of an advertisement deal with radio shack, for many years. In any case, it is a shame to have lost another writer who had been a part of my life for decades, with such works as Footfall,Janissaries, the mote in god's eye and King David Spaceship. Not to mention his column in Byte that I would always turn to first in that magazine.
He died almost a year ago, so it seems weird that you are just getting the word now, but I also enjoyed his work; both his collaborations with Larry Niven and his Co-Dominium series, which is a great template for creating a future history.
I remember teasing him that as no one had hear from Niven lately he must have him chain in his basement writing their next book together using an old 80286 system. If I remember correctly his reply was that he had provided Niven with a 80386 system. He was an interesting guy who got mad at me once for complaining that he was using his byte column. to plug his wife software and his son disk recovery business to far too great a degree issue after issue. He told me that he was ordering the Byte shipping department to cut out his column from my magazines as reading it is a privilege and not a right.
