Look and Listen

Biography

I was born into a tough neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey, where I learned powerful lessons about family, friendship and violence. I survived, so I consider my childhood a success. My escape was fiction, and I spent many hours reading in the local library. Nurturing a passion for technology, I went on to gain a BS in Chemical Engineering from NJIT. Not enough challenge. Always fascinated by new technologies, I was awarded a full fellowship at Columbia University and gained a MS in Nuclear Engineering. Although I designed submarine nuclear reactors for three years, I discovered I enjoyed software development more than reactor design, so I changed career direction and achieved a second MS; this one in Computer Science from RPI. Fascinated by virtually all areas of software development, my expertise grew to include coding, design, project management, quality improvement and finally, general management. My niche was software consulting and my team assisted many large corporations and governmental organizations. Always looking for a bigger challenge, I built and managed several consulting practices. I’m especially proud of two accomplishments – assisting AT&T greatly improve the quality of the first commercial UNIX release and helping Microsoft to create a world class consulting organization. Positions held during my consulting years included Senior Principal with an international accounting/consulting firm, President, Software Technology Management Inc. and General Manager with Microsoft. Nine years ago I decided to leave consulting and concentrate on a long held desire to write fiction. A successful engineer and businessman, I had the breadth of experience to understand and synthesize rapidly evolving strands of technology. It became clear that fundamental change would turn our society upside down within the next few decades. Humans will have to adapt rapidly to gain the advantages of these changing social and technological innovations. Indeed, we will have to adapt rapidly just to survive.I scoped out a trilogy of novels to expose three oncoming challenges; computer viruses enhanced with artificial intelligence (set in 2012), the oncoming clash between religion and technology concerning what it means to be human (2022), and the beginnings of the integration of human and artificial intelligence into a network entity (2032). Each novel is written as a thriller – packed with adventure, sex, greed and romance – as well as realistic science and technology. The three leading characters – Dianne Morgan, a female mega-billionaire obsessed with power; Ray Brown, her onetime lover and a brilliant software architect; and David Brown, Ray’s genetically gifted son – are fascinating and all too human.PEACEMAKER, my first novel, was released in August, 2004 with outstanding feedback by critics, authors, and most importantly, by customers. My next novel, UNHOLY DOMAIN, was released April 2, 2008 by Kunati Books, with an excellent response. The final novel of the trilogy, tentatively entitled TOMORROW’S CHILDREN, should be released next year.

Inspiration

Two writers really get to me. For all-around talent and professionalism, it’s difficult to surpass Larry McMurtry. Lonesome Dove is almost perfect literature; there’s not a word I would change. Captains Gus and Call are individually great characters, but when you link them together, the result is greater than the sum of the individuals. And McMurtry maintained the excellence of the characters across their lifetimes in three related but different books. I attempted to do the same with Dianne Morgan, Ray Brown and his son David, although I fell short of the standard set by McMurtry. For creativity, story-telling and realistic detail, I admire Frank Herbert. The original Dune novels stand head and shoulders above any other science fiction series. Herbert’s creative genius and attention to detail made the desert planet of Dune come alive. I have read the original Dune series five times already, with each read exposing aspects of the story I hadn’t seen before. It’s interesting that some readers of Unholy Domain liken it to Philip K. Dick’s works. An honor, really. I was surprised to read the comparisons, but who could complain about being mentioned in the same breath as one of the old masters? My stories are set in the near future, just as his are, and we both see the darkness approaching, so that might be it, but it wasn’t my intention to adopt his style. I think we have very different styles, and the similarities are overstated. Just my opinion