A report of my historical observations of the career of Constance Elaine Trimmer Willis from 1981 to 2000 (Old Style).   Time Drop Project Balliol22846, funded by a grant from the Williamson Institute for Advanced Literary Studies.

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            Mr. Dunworthy, I am calling this report WILLIS WATCH because it's supposed to a record of my encounters with Connie.  I'm sorry that I have not been able to communicate sooner.  I know that there were many at the history lab who questioned the wisdom of sending an English major back in time. I suppose it is possible that a trained historian might have been more efficient about negotiating his way through the late twentieth century.  But rest assured, all is well.  My practicum is underway and I feel confident that it will be a success. 

See, I was an English major in college and such science as there is in my work is largely the result of self-education. So I was thrilled to be invited to speak at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in October of 1998, especially when I found out I was on a program with the great Fred Pohl. It's too bad you weren't there; Fred read his seminal "Day Million," which to my mind defines what science fiction can and cannot do. If you head over to the Media In Transition web page, you can read a very sensible essay about me by the conference's organizer, Henry Jenkins.