Look and Listen

Biography

I'm a country boy turned scientist and engineer. Though born in Santa Monica, California, I was raised on a small farm in rural Oregon. I mean, it was so rural that our nearest neighbor lived about two miles away on the other side of a turkey ranch that reeked and yelling for help was as productive as watering a dead tree. I attended a one-room school for the first part of my education. My serious interest in astronomy, physics, and the sciences in general received a strong push on my seventh birthday when one of my uncles gave me a beautiful brass and bronze telescope he had smuggled out of Germany in his duffle bag. That was in 1947. That's not quite true, now that I think about it--I've always been keenly interested in the sciences. Anyway, I started writing at the professional level in 1956 as a technical writer/copywriter (and illustrator) for a large publishing house in West Los Angeles, California by the name of Butler Publications. I was 15 years old when I started that job, and here I am, still writing...just can't seem to break the habit! I became a naval architect, yacht designer and builder and spent 28 years in those endeavors (boy, do I have stories to tell about those years, but I won't). My creative writing, in the main, was put on hold during that time, though I did write articles for various magazines, essays, papers, and other stuff on a broad range of subjects including creatively applied mathematics in design, meteoritics (PHAs, NEOs), possibilities of life in the universe, technology and its implications for the future, a number of short stories, etc.... I also lectured on those subjects and more in universities, high schools, and wherever else there was an interest. What turns me on? Lots of things, some of them I'm even willing to share publicly. Women, sailing, motorcycling, flying (now I'm limited to models and simulators), bicycling, astronomy, women, physics, mathematics, good conversation, advances in technology and its effects on the human condition, ad infinitum. What turns me off? People who talk the talk but don't walk the walk (you know, lots of lip flapping wind but little action), fast food "restaurants," politicians, salesmen (sorry--salespersons), boring conversation, bad books, bad science (something that fills the big screen and television--books, too), nonsense in general, loud music which, to me, is nothing but noise, ad nauseum. Oh, and I detest writing about myself but, unfortunately, it's part of the business.

Inspiration

Well, that's a big subject, isn't it...? I was raised on the "original" Buck Rogers serials, the "real" Rocket Man, Tom Corbett-Space Cadet, X Minus 1, Heinlein, Sturgeon, Asimov, Forward, Clarke, Brown, Dick, etc. I am and have always been influenced by my early exposure to SF and hard science. Fusing the two delights me and I am, according to some, a practical futurist, or should that be practically a futurist? I dunno. I'm also inspired by people; the great and the not-so-great. People who wander the halls of wisdom and those who populate sleezy diners in out-of-the-way places. To me there is no such thing as a truly "ordinary" person--they're all fascinating and what makes them tick is what makes a good story tick. Not that I would want to spend much time talking to a lot of them, mind you. Animals and insects (including arthropods) do the same thing for me. I would have to say that inspiration comes from all corners, even the dark ones hiding in the shadowed areas of my alleged mind.