Look and Listen

Biography

Born and grew through the early years in Philadelphia, where when the brick-and-mortar public library was torn down I was no longer able to borrow dinosaur books. A few years later a Bookmobile appeared a few blocks away. I can still smell the cheap carpet and the...books. The first borrow was War of the Worlds, the paperback, recommended by a friend. Second was The Time Machine and it was all over.

So I've read lots, in all genres, and write some when something bubbles up, and I have the time.

Then, pretty much, adulthood. Work work work. Family. Married above my station. Three kids.

You can follow the rest of my biography as it happens, in real time, as I'm somewhat active on Facebook....Bill Shears

Not Twittering that much but follow away. Mention NB and I'll follow back, you bet....Bill Shears.

The page for Kite is at facebook.com/kitethenovel. I post news fairly regularly about space exploration, astronomy, science and sci-fi.

Recently posted the short story, "The Beekeeper" on Scribd. which may likely be the first of a series. Synopsis: The Beekeeper tends his hives and lives his life, years after after getting bounced by his rival at a high-tech mega-corporation. Then a mysterious unaccounted-for supply pod returns to intersect the orbit of the new space casino. The Beekeeper is the only one, on the planet or off, who can deal with it.

Blogging on strategy games, mostly, at InfinityBound where there's also a page with synposis and two-chapter excerpt of Kite.

Suspense columnist for Night Owl Reviews.

Polka Dot Banner Featured Author: Bill Shears Explains Hard Science Fiction

Authors of Tomorrow | Amazon's New Literary Talent

Kite (available on Amazon.com) is Science fiction comedy in Earth orbit. Mason Dash and beautiful virtual girlfriend face spacejackers, a digital uprisiing and humankind's first unearthly visitor.

Inspiration

Inspired to write mostly by the legends and the Golden Age writers, including Verne, Wells, Asimov and the master, Robert Heinlein. Also I stick mostly to the harder settings in the writing - near future, on and around Earth - so probably, now that I think about it, the other real-life inspiration was the US space program. Neil Armstrong, yeah, his stroll on the Moon is as far as we've gotten so far. Sure the probes are great, and the Voyagers are amazing. But just like a good story is always about people, exploration needs a smelly human on the scene. A few years ago I was lucky to have heard Armstrong speak at a business conference. Quite authentically inspirational.