Free Grumbles from the Grave by Robert A. Heinlein, Virginia Heinlein

that only short range predictions can hope to be reasonably accurate. Young Atomic Engineers [ Rocket Ship Galileo ] is based on the latter of the two assumptions, i.e., a period of peace and unchecked technical progress.
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    In doing fiction about the future, I regard myself as a professional prophet—a man who makes an honest attempt to evaluate the probabilities and to write stories setting forth patterns inherent in those probabilities. If I am to be honest, I must prophesy what I think will (or could) happen, not what someone else thinks will happen. If Mr. ---- does not see my concept of the possibilities, he had better write it himself or get a hack writer who is willing to write another man's plot. That should be easy for him to do and I do not disapprove of such hack work—but it is almost impossible for me to do it, and I won't do it unless I'm hungry, which I'm not.
    ( Young Atomic Engineers contains two conventional deviations from what I believe to be reasonably possible; I have condensed the preparation time for the trip and I have assumed that four people can do work which should require more nearly forty. Otherwise, I regard the techniques used in the story, and even the incidents, to be possible, albeit romantic and in some respects not too likely in detail. But I do expect space travel and I expect it soon. The counterplot is more than a possibility, it is a distinct menace—though it may not turn out to hinge on a base located on the Moon.)
    . . . I suppose you are used to the method of having a writer send in a few chapters and a synopsis. I will do that when requested to, but, unfortunately, once I have gone that far with a novel, that novel will be finished about ten days later, or at least with such speed that only the fastest possible response from the publisher can affect the outcome very much. I am sorry, but it is a concomitant of how I work. I work slowly on a novel for the first few chapters only. As soon as I can hear the characters talk, it then becomes a race to see whether I put down their actions fast enough not to miss any of them. It is more economical in time and money and it results in a better story for me to work straight through to a conclusion, rather than wait for an editor to make up his mind whether or not he likes it. Editors are not likely to like my advance synopses in any case, for it is simply impossible for me to give the flavor of a story not yet written in a synopsis.
    [(The additional books proposed for this series are: The Young Atomic Engineers on Mars, or Secret of the Moon Corridors , The Young Atomic Engineers in the Asteroids , or The Mystery of the Broken Planet , The Young Atomic Engineers in Business , or The Solar System Mining Corporation
    And at least two more.)]
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    Editor's Note: September 24, 1946. Letter of this date says that editor at Scribner's liked Young Atomic Engineers.
    September 27, 1946: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
    Young Atomic Engineers —I am delighted to hear that Alice Dalgliesh [editor at Scribner's] likes this ms. In my letter of 16 March 46 you will find a list of titles for a proposed series of sequels and considerable discussion of what I would like to do in re juveniles, as well as what I think might be done further to exploit this story. I expect to be guided by you in all those matters—my opinions are not final. I certainly would be willing to rewrite to editorial order and to plan stories to fit editorial desires in order to have my book brought out by so distinguished a house as Scribner's.
    February 1, 1947: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
    I have signed the contract as you advised, but I am returning the contract to Scribner's through you in order that you may reconsider whether or not to ask them to make any changes in the contract . . . The manuscript has been revised and is now being retyped. It will be delivered to Scribner's by the tenth of February.
    SPACE CADET

    (45)
    Space Cadet ,