I grew up in small Wisconsin towns. Due to my father's work, I attended two grade schools and three high schools. I have fond memories of each.

I have always loved reading science fiction. In fact, the first book I remember checking out from the library on my own was The Enormous Egg by Oliver Butterworth. It's about a boy who finds a dinosaur egg… and it hatches!

When I was a little older, I discovered André Norton's Catseye — a thrilling scifi adventure about a young man who becomes involved with spies and telepathic animals when he takes a job in an intergalactic pet shop. 

The first book I ever bought was in school, from the Scholastic Book Club. It was a paperback copy of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein for a whopping 35¢. I still have that book and the other two I ordered. I was so proud to have bought it with my own money that I saved the order form inside the book. The Hardy Boys turned me on to mysteries and Mark Twain to humor. I really didn’t read many superhero comic books such as Superman and Batman. I preferred The Phantom and Uncle Scrooge adventures.

My high school and college reading took me into Robert Heinlein, Douglas Adams, and Michael Crichton. Authors such as Philip Pullman and J. K. Rowling brought me back to reading YA fiction.

I spent the first fifteen years of my adult life as a theater designer, director, actor, and playwright and I taught at Arizona State University and the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse.

With the introduction of the Macintosh computer, I moved into graphic design and computer education. I created the interface and more than 600 educational programs for the EduNet Network, and hosted live educational broadcasts into K-12 classrooms across the country. I have also written nearly 900 video scripts for Pearson Education.

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