As a child, he corresponded with A Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin about their shared love of comic books.

[3] Waldrop was a frequent attendee of ArmadilloCon, the local science fiction convention held annually in Austin.

[7] Waldrop was Professional Writer Guest of Honor at Loscon 46 in Los Angeles, California, in 2019.

His style is sometimes obscure or elliptical: Night of the Cooters is a pastiche of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds told from the perspective of a small town Texas sheriff (a homage to Slim Pickens) who faces a Martian cylinder crashing down near his town; "Heirs of the Perisphere" involves robotic Disney characters waking up in the far future; "Fin de Cyclé" describes the Dreyfus affair from the perspective of bicycle enthusiasts.

Waldrop's work is frequently out-of-print, though still available for sale online; several of his books have been reprinted in omnibus editions.