In the story “Iron Man, Plastic Ships” [from Viewpoints Critical] your protagonist is named McCaine. Since this was written about the time John McCain appeared on the political scene, was your protagonist named McCaine because John McCain was a pilot prisoner of war?

In point of fact, “Iron Man, Plastic Ships” was written in 1978 and first appeared in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine in October 1979. John McCain was first elected to Congress in 1982 and was still in the Navy at the time the story was written. Because I was also a Navy pilot during the Vietnam era, I was certainly aware of John McCain, although we never met, but I have to say that any link of names had to be either subconscious or coincidental, because I certainly don’t remember even thinking about it.