Em "An Raffle Autobiográfico de Joe Haldeman", Ramble Autobiográfica , ele diz:
...When September came around, I signed up as a part-time graduate student, so I'd have more time to write. On the first day of classes, I found out that the professor who was teaching the one I really needed -- Simulation of Physical Systems -- had run off to another university, leaving his notes with a graduate student who promised he'd try to stay one week ahead of us. I quit. I sat down and wrote the two chapters and outline for War Year and sent them to Bova. Two weeks later, I had a contract from Holt, Rinehart and Winston. I dropped out of mathematics and never looked back.