Robin Sloan Media Inventor

What are you up to these days? Editing my first novel, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, which is set in SF and due in 2012 from Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 

Where do you get your local gossip? Twitter, for sure. I follow dozens and dozens of SF locals – friends, former colleagues, journalists, restaurants... even a nemesis or two.

Who's your favorite quintessential local character? Is Mat Honan (@mat) a quintessential local character yet? I love his sense of humor, which is often ruthless but also guided by a real moral compass – which feels like SF at its best. I also love his Outer Sunset boosterism.

What's your favorite under-the-radar restaurant? Cajun Pacific has a tiny kitchen, idiosyncratic hours of operation, and the best food in the Outer Sunset. Don't go there. In fact, forget you ever saw this.

Why do you love your neighborhood? There are Arizmendi bakeries accessible in two directions – one reachable by foot, the other by N Judah – so I can check both pizza calendars and pick the one that sounds the best. That is luxury.

What's your favorite SF institution? I'm going to climb into my time machine and say Twitter's soon-to-be-headquarters on Market Street. I used to ride my bike past that building (the long-defunct Western Furniture Exchange) all the time, and I always thought, gosh, it's so beautiful – it ought to be something. Well, soon it will be.

What do you get obsessive about here in SF? The current position, velocity, and density of Karl the Fog.