First theory: "The Cool Stuff Theory of Literature is as follows: All literature consists of whatever the writer thinks is cool. The reader will like the book to the degree that he agrees with the writer about what's cool. And that works all the way from the external trappings to the level of metaphor, subtext, and the way one uses words."

Second theory: "The novel should be understood as a structure built to accommodate the greatest possible amount of cool stuff."

Also, I have taken this wonderful author up on his one piece of writing advice. "What you do is you put up a sign on whatever wall you face when you're writing. The sign says: And now, I'm going to tell you something really cool."

I've got my sign. Do you have yours?

(All of the above quotes can be found in the appendix chapter of Steven Brust's The Paths of the Dead.)