Look and Listen

Biography

My real name is William Roy Penning (you can probably see where I derived the pseudonym from!). I was born in 1957 in Washington, DC to military parents and moved around until I was about two years old, at which time my father retired and our family settled down for a few years in Indiana, where my sister Cheryl was born. When I was four, my family moved to Eagle River, Wisconsin, where I grew up.
Living in the Northwoods made a nature lover out of me, and to this day I love to go camping and hiking in the wilderness. After finishing undergraduate school I moved to Arizona to pursue a graduate degree, and fell in love with the West. Every few years I take an extended trip through the Arizona mountains, along the Pacific Coast, and over to the forests and national parks of Montana and Wyoming.
Although I grew up in a churchgoing family, it wasn't until I was 17 that I came to a true understanding of the Gospel and committed my life to Jesus Christ. After nine and a half years of college, studying physics and astronomy, I concluded that although I enjoyed the subject matter, I wanted to find something more meaningful to do with my life. A few years later I joined Wycliffe Bible Translators, and after going through training ended up in Brazil working as a computer consultant and technician.
I've always had an active imagination and have dabbled in writing since childhood. Fueled by Star Trek, sci-fi movies and a voracious appetite for reading, I always went the extra mile whenever my school class was given a writing assignment in any science-related area. During my college years I made several attempts to write full-length novels, but never actually tried to get them published. When I went to Brazil I found plenty of other things to keep me occupied for the first several years.
Nevertheless, after I was settled in and began to have some spare time, the writing bug returned. I wrote a couple of short stories "just for fun". Then I remembered a story idea that I'd had many years earlier and decided to make a serious attempt to bring it back to life. The end result was EvilSpace.
Today, I'm still working in Brazil. I am also working on a couple more short stories and another full-length novel. At this point I plan to continue with Wycliffe in Brazil, but as long as story ideas keep coming, I also plan to keep on writing.

Inspiration

I have always enjoyed science fiction. Being a Christian, I have also been disappointed in both the philosophical view of mainstream sci-fi, as well as what I perceive as poor quality of most so-called "Christian Science Fiction". I felt that I could do a better job — write a story that could stand on its own without merely being a vehicle for sharing Christ — and yet remain true to my beliefs.
The first result of my efforts is called EvilSpace, and I believe it lives up to what I have wanted to do. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
More books are on the way!