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Philip K. Dick occupies a unique position in the canon of 20th century Science Fiction. Despite working for his entire life in a field that is often dismissed as mere genre, Dick enjoyed numerous accolades from the mainstream while alive. And in the years since his death in 1982, Dick's work has become even better known and respected. Primarily, this is because of the many films that have been adapted from his work. But fans of Science Fiction who have neglected Dick's novels and shorts stories are truly missing out on one of last century's finest writers.

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Let's just get the bias out of the way upfront, okay? I am in the last days of a Kickstarter that has been wonderfully successful. So though the experience isn't over quite yet, I can only report satisfaction and indeed glee at the response to my effort to raise funds to self-publish my novel, The Girl Who Would Be King.

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I received SO many wonderful questions this past week. It was really hard to choose only a few to answer. Keep an eye out for future columns; I may eventually get to your question.

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Archetypes are important, but they're no excuse for lazy writing. These particular archetypes drive me batty because they create a series of characters that are interchangeable and formulaic. Fill in a few blanks and you can generate your own Mary Sue or Reluctant Hero with very little effort. When she was ___ her ___ died. He was unwilling to leave his ordinary life in ___ to journey to ___ and save the ___. It's like People Mad Libs, and that's no way to write a character.

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Over at Forever Young Adult, we have a term we like to use to describe the feeling or action of being totally obsessed with something. It sums up the tingles of giddy excitement that sweep through your body when you think about your favorite author or TV show, as well as the complete irrationality of your subsequent behavior. The term is "swimfan," which we borrowed from a movie starring Erika Christensen as a bonkers psychopath who becomes fixated on a high school swimmer.