joshenglish has done an interesting and thorough discussion of my January 2013 Asimov's short story, "The Family Rocket."

It's weird to read my work dissected in this way.  I've certainly done my fair share of literary analysis, but when it comes back on me, it feels like having my portrait drawn, or realizing someone in another room is chatting about me.

Occasionally a middle school or high school student will do a book report on one of my books, and then e-mail me the essay.  That's fairly odd too.

Josh has been doing a series of looks at short fiction he calls "Story a Day."  I do this periodically too, just to figure out what is going on in other people's stories.  It's a useful exercise to go to school on someone else's writing.  You can learn a lot by going through a story carefully and writing what you notice.