Links:

    -AUTHOR SITE: AndyWeirAuthor
    -WIKIPEDIA: The Martian (Weir novel)
    -ESSAY: How science made me a writer: As a programmer and all-around nerd, I learned that the intricacies of science can be a great driver for plot (Andy Weir, 2/11/14, Salon)

One day, in between doing highly charismatic non-nerdy things, I started working up a manned Mars mission in my head. I even wrote my own software to calculate the orbital trajectory my imaginary crew would take to get from Earth to Mars. And not some boring Hohmann Transfer, either! I envisioned a constantly accelerating VASIMR powered ship, which — ahem. Sorry, got carried away. Anyway, I had to account for failure scenarios on their surface mission. What if something went wrong? How could I design the mission so the crew would have contingency plans? What if they had multiple failures, one after another, that ruined those contingency plans?

While working that out, I started to realize their increasingly desperate solutions would make a pretty interesting story. That’s when I came up with the idea for “The Martian.”

    -INTERVIEW: 'The Martian': Author Andy Weir discusses his new sci-fi novel (Molly Driscoll, February 20, 2014, CS Monitor)
    -INTERVIEW: 'The Martian' Author Andy Weir Explains All the Ways Mars Wants to Kill You: Weir explains what definitely would have killed his hero, what O.J. Simpson and Mark Watney have in common, and why space mutinies are more common than you might think. (Andrew Moseman, Popular Mechanics)
    -AUDIO INTERVIEW: Andy Weir: ‘The Martian’: To write The Martian, first-time novelist Andy Weir had to study orbital mechanics, astronomy, and the history of manned spaceflight. The payoff is a survival story so realistic, it’ll make you wonder, Could a stranded astronaut really survive on Mars? (Ira Flatow, 2/14/14, NPR Science Friday)
    -PROFILE: The surprising story of how Andy Weir's self-published book 'The Martian' topped best seller lists and got a movie deal (Kelly Dickerson, Jun. 22, 2015, Business Insider)
    -PROFILE: Andy Weir and his book ‘The Martian’ may have saved NASA and the entire space program (Joel Achenbach May 5, 2015, Washington Post)
    -ARTICLE: 'The Martian' Author Andy Weir Takes a Spin on NASA's Electric Rover (Tariq Malik, May 08, 2015 , Space.com)
    -PROFILE: Andy Weir on his strange journey from self-publishing to Hollywood (Sara Vilkomerson, 11/05/2014, Entertainment Weekly)
    -INTERVIEW: Stuck on Mars with nothing but disco: Ars talks with The Martian’s Andy Weir (Lee Hutchinson, Nov 16, 2014, Ars Technica)
    -INTERVIEW: Andy Weir, Author of The Martian: A conversation with a space nerd-turned-novelist. (Rebecca Maksel, July 23, 2014, airspacemag.com)
    -PROFILE: Andy Weir's self-published 'The Martian' travels through space to best-sellerdom (Georgia Rowe, 03/10/2014, Mercury News)
    -PROFILE: 'The Martian' author is less optimistic about getting to Mars than NASA: His book about a colony on Mars is about to become a Hollywood blockbuster, but Andy Weir isn't quite as bullish as NASA about his fiction becoming fact within 25 years. (Eric Mack, May 5, 2015, Cnet)
    -PROFILE: A Survival Guide to Mars: A Computer-Scientist-Turned-Novelist Explores Life on Mars in Debut Thriller (Alexandra Alter, Feb. 14, 2014, WSJ)
    -REVIEW: of The Martian by Andy Weir (Adam Frank, NPR)
    -REVIEW: of The Martian (Tom Shippey, WSJ)
    -REVIEW: of The Martian (Philip Marchand, National Post)
    -REVIEW: of The Martian (Kirkus Reviews)
    -REVIEW: of The Martian (Independent)
    -REVIEW: of The Martian (Cassandra Neace, Bookriot)
    -REVIEW: of The Martian (Emily Bartlett Hines, BookPage)
    -REVIEW: of The Martian (Jeff Foust, Space Review)
    -REVIEW: of The Martian (Anthony Schulz, Book Examiner)
    -REVIEW: of The Martian (Rebecca Skane, Seacost Online)
    -REVIEW: of The Martian (Thomas M. Wagner, SF Reviews)
    -REVIEW: of The Martian (Samantha Nelson, AV Club)
    -REVIEW: of The Martian (Kevin Nance, USA Today)
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    -REVIEW: of Project Hail Mary (Lawrence De Maria, Washington Independent Review of Books)
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