Like @Silvermoon82 and @Alex Pope, I've only known you here. It was July 2007. Penny Arcade was gearing up for PAX and, in-between the comics and blog posts, I read this: http://penny-arcade.com/2007/07/23/pax-20074. "Good grief," I said under my breath. "Wil Wheaton's still alive!?" Taking a break from work, I highlighted your name and copy-pasted it into Google. Wil Wheaton dot Net: In Exile. Okay then. Clickety-click. I began reading in my lunch hour. It stretched out longer than intended as I dove back over the months, taking my time over the longer, anecdotal posts. After the first few, a realisation dawned on me. "Good grief," I said under my breath. "Wil Wheaton's a writer!?" Late August 2007, I ordered "Just a Geek" and "Dancing Barefoot" from Amazon and read through them both in a day. They only confirmed what I already knew. You were a writer and a good one at that. In January 2008, I downloaded your Phoenix (Cactus) Comic Con reading and listened to it every Wednesday and Friday at the gym. At one stage, I had both the "Blue Light Special" and the "Justice" readings almost memorised (I'm getting brief bits coming back as I type this! "Little does my brain know that it's one Guiness away from complete coma ..."). Audio books followed, as did the Happiest Days of Our Lives Special Edition... eventually, which my wife will never let me forget. The Criminal Minds Production Diary joined the Phoenix Comic Con as the background to my gym visits. I still hope that one day you'll be able to share the wisdom you got from the Gruesome Twosome (see http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/2008/10/criminal-mind-2.html). I de-lurked on April 4th 2008. I was a bit of a whiney dick on May 16th 2008. I commented about my most favourite of all your blog posts on June 10th 2008, which gives me sads today because the dog I talked about died suddenly later that same year ("Houses in Motion", "Let Go" and "Blue Light Special", repeated for the record). You gave me good advice on November 20th 2009 and, a couple of days later, I stood up in front of 30 strangers and performed my short story, "I Am Made Of Lego" (http://dkplewis.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/i-am-made-of-lego.html). I did not suck. Thank you. In December 2010, I got an honourable mention from you in a caption competition that featured far too many smurfs. What I'm getting at is that this blog, this emergency backup, has been the constant background for watching you go from "that bloke who used to be on Star Trek" to "that bloke who writes and plays a dick on Eureka and gave us W00tstock". I haven't been a consistent commenter, but WWdn: In Exile has had a place in my RSS reader for 5 years. It's going to be strange to see the URLs without "wwdnbackup" in them. Strange but also good. Welcome home, Wil Wheaton.

I'm really hoping that, over the next few days, your neighbours start dropping hints about the awesome, impromptu concert that Molly held on your front porch...

Congratulations! I'll be looking out for it. How did you find the change from writing short stories to writing a comic script? Have you got any advice for someone in a similar position? I'm currently working on an edit of a script I wrote last year for ScriptFrenzy and the toughest thing for me is cutting back the dialogue without affecting what needs to be conveyed to the reader.

Seconded!

IMHO, the work in Memories of the Future is the best you've done so far. Your performance of "Justice" at the Phoenix Cactus Comic-con a few years back is embedded on my iPod. I like the idea of TNG clips, but wouldn't licensing be a nightmare? You could always get P&S to re-enact scenes, as well as providing the music. They already have the uniforms, after all.

If you haven't done so already, get thee to Eventful.com. Demands = higher chance of getting shows in the UK.

I have to disagree with Anonymous. The conflict that drives our stories is born from darkness; a secret kept from others, a secret learned by others, the worst day of your Hero's life, or a world gone mad. There's always darkness, ranging from bad to downright evil. For me, the point of fictional evil is that we can ensure it will be defeated, unlike real evil which is so often outside of our sphere of influence. It's the Hero's ability to overcome that evil that makes for an interesting, engaging story. I feel that part of Anonymous' problem is that the story is too short to allow our Hero to reach that goal. For me, it certainly wasn't a happy ending, but it was a hopeful ending; in this dark, horrible world, there was finally someone willing to fight for the innocents. That, of course, leads to discussions about the ends justifying the means and whether armed resistance is ever right. To say I'm looking forward to the next visit to Goa is an understatement. I don't think it's fair to ask an author to dilute the darkness; it's the story that demands the darkness, rather than the writer. I think we're mature enough as writers to not over-do it or damage the story by compromising what we do. I'm sure I don't need to quote P. T. Barnum to you :-) Perhaps I should print that quote out and hang it on the wall under the "Don't be afraid to suck" banner...

Random writing toolbox thought: I wonder if it'd be useful to do a "post-mortem" on a story when it's been killed, instead of simply filing it whole, i.e. discarding everything but the bits that interest you and filing those ideas. Properly, I mean, for example, expanding character bios, jotting down plot developments, etc. and putting them in a folder, rather than trying to keep them in your head. Through that process, you might even find out why the story didn't work out and be able to re-awaken the passion that got the story going in the first place. BTW, "Storage of Corpses" is the name of my Rolling Stones cover band.

My copy of The Day After and Other Stories arrived just after you went dark for JoCo Cruise Crazy, so I haven't had a chance until now to say how much I enjoyed it. Thank you for making it available. And, by the way, that excerpt is *good*! I'm itching to spend some money now.

Sorry, what was that? My brain managed to process "Wil Wheaton" and "new book" and before I knew what had happened, I'd spent a tenner at Lulu.com. If these stories are half as good as your "Clash of the Geeks" story, this is going to be a real treat. You know what? Between your project and reading about Joel Watson's Experiment over at Hijinks Ensue, I'm really getting fired up to make 2011 and 2012 super-creative. Cards on the table. I'm going to sell a story next year, come heck or high water.

Congratulations to the winners! Looking forward to buying the chapbook later so we can keep the Bursar in dried frog pills.

A) Please count me in to this awesome book lottery. B) Please post a photo of the number of dice you're going to have roll for this :-) Actually, you do have a few spares laying around, as I recall!

In this still from never-before-seen footage shot for "Hide and Q", we finally learn that Riker's tempting offer to Wesley went far, far beyond just making him an adult.

I didn't realise how well you knew Chris Hardwick until I watched his opening act from W00tstock 2.6 and he told the strip club story. You know, *that* strip club story. He had me crying with laughter via YouTube, so I suspect he's lethal live. If you guys could make the Nerdist podcast featuring you happen, well, that would be seventeen shades of awesome. Oh, and hit him up for a Node invite!

The second paragraph really tells you all you need to know about the characters and I love the reveal of Ian's secret. Mrs Canton's invite gives it a great ending. Good stuff! And seriously, the Daily Writers group on The Node would be perfect for you. Let me know if you want an invite (and that goes for any creative geeks and nerds here).

That's why I love the Daily Writers group on The Node. A daily, ten minute burst of writing on a theme word to keep the creative machine well-oiled and running smoothly. I even have something I want to follow up on so I can see where the story goes from the brief glimpse I got.

Reading something this well-written makes me wonder when we'll next get the chance to buy a selection of your stories. Weekend Wil FTW! I guess your creative midichlorians are back to full power?

Laddie's current, most-favouritest toy isn't one of his rubber bones, of both squeaky and thankfully non-squeaky varieties, nor is it one of his rubber balls, nor one of his nylabones, nor his Kong. Nope, his favourite toy right now is half the sole of one of my old slippers that we gave him while my father-in-law was dog-sitting him last month. We love 'em, but by goodness we can't understand them sometimes!

And five and a half thousand miles away, at the other end of the day, my dog is trying to convince me, through the use of eyebrows and really big puppy dog eyes, that he really should be allowed to have his dental chew before he's finished his bowl of chow. It's these little moments that remind us why we own pets. Thanks for sharing yours. On another topic, are you going to get a chance to call in to Desert Bus For Hope this year?

Thank you! That's the perfect picture to go alongside the "The Way-Too-Early Christmas Song" for derailing ... umm... way-too-early Christmas ... stuff. Also, you win an Internet.

Thank you both so much for doing this again. We've donated on behalf of our rescue hound, Laddie (@laddiethemutt) and we'll make sure to let all his Twitter friends know about this as well. We hope Anne has a great day out with Seamus!

Thanks for putting my mind at ease; I'll get on with letting people know!

Thank you so much for your time!

Donated, downloaded and tweeted. I'll be enjoying this later. This is Geek Power at its finest! Now, I hope this doesn't annoy or irritate or make anyone think I'm a dick, but... I entered the fan-fic competition back in June and didn't win. So, while I didn't end up in the book, at least I can now do this to further help out the Lupus Alliance of America: http://dkplewis.blogspot.com/2010/09/in-playground-of-fire-kings.html For every critique I get on my writing blog, up to a maximum of 50, I'll donate another dollar to the LAA (that's not just critiquing "In The Playground Of The Fire Kings", but any of my published writing). The final amount will be rounded up to the nearest $5. There's no time limit, apart from how long UnicornPegasusKitten.com and the PayPal link are available for. Thanks for your time!

All this talk of Sinclair computers reminds me I have a Spectrum +3 with a disk drive in need of repair. Once it's working again, there will be much Spy vs. Spy, oh yes indeed! And probably a heck of a lot of Ant Attack too.