One of my earliest memories is of a time when I was probably about three years old, sitting on my father’s lap while he read the newspaper comics out loud to me. I thought he was making up stories to go with the pictures, but one day I asked him how he knew what the characters in the pictures were going to say. He showed me a line of text under the comic and pointed out each word as he read it aloud again. Many decades later, I still remember the brilliant flash of glorious understanding about what words were, and how they could be used.

Before I was ten years old, I was reading the science fiction writings of the grand masters; Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Frederick Pohl, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, and all the rest. I obsessively read every science fiction book I could find. I started writing my own version of science fiction around the same time. Those stories have been lost to history, but in them I recall making up “alien” names and words by simply stringing together a long series of random letters, which were of course completely unpronounceable. I’m still working on my skills in that area.

I continually work on expanding my knowledge in other areas that support the stories I write. Quantum mechanics (although I don’t “have the math”) is endlessly fascinating to me. I think the underlying theories in this area of physics have provided me with a basis for doing pretty much anything I want to do when world-building in my writings. Of course, I still have to consider the hard science – the laws of physics we normally recognize as operating in our universe – so that I don’t have characters floating away if they should reasonably have gravity to some degree where they’re located.

The line between quantum mechanics and metaphysics isn’t as definitive as I think most physicists might wish. While there isn’t a clear crossover between the two areas, for my purposes they can blend nicely. I first became aware of metaphysics when I was in my mid-teens and came upon the writings of Edgar Cayce, the “Sleeping Prophet”. Thereafter, metaphysics became a deep and abiding interest for me. For a time I pursued informal comparative religions studies, where I found very interesting correlations with metaphysics. As with physics, there’s no solid bridge between the two branches of study, but there are definitely overlaps. As the human race advances in knowledge of itself and our known universe, we’re learning that our known universe isn’t as fixed as we thought.

I raised three daughters and innumerable pets, and I’m in the process of completely spoiling my several grandchildren. I recently retired after a long career in the legal field covering intellectual property in the high tech industry, and I’m thrilled at the prospect of being able to write whenever the muse strikes. People have wondered if I’m going anywhere after I retire, to which I quote Buzz Lightyear: “To infinity and beyond!”