Under the chalk

"Didn't mean to startle you." He offered his hand, dry and strong under the chalk. "I'm Paul Collins, your pilot. Recognized you on the passenger roster."

—Joe Haldeman, Marsbound (2008)

UPDATE: "My" Paul Collins has discovered the solution: "...It's a shout-out to the Australian sci-fi Paul Collins!"

Distant Worlds Australian SF & F 4

Collins, Paul, Series Editor

[ISBN: 0909117098]

St Kilda, Victoria: Cory and Collins, 1981. 242 pp. Cover slightly edgeworn and a little rubbed. Spine uncreased. Pages uniformly yellowed, but clean, unwrinkled and tightly bound. Foreword by Joe Haldeman. Stories by Jack Wodhams, Cherry Wilder, Darrell Schweitzer, Trudy Rose, Michael Hailstone, Wynne N. Whiteford, Howard Goldsmith, John J. Alderson, Keith Taylor, David J. Lake, and Leanne Frahm and Paul Collins.. First. Paperback. Good+. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. (more information)

Offered by Wormhole Books (Australia)