Look and Listen

Biography

Steve & Deja Whitehouse met when they were working together in central London and they now live in Laleham in Middlesex. Steve is fascinated by cosmology and theoretical physics and has a passion for rugby, golf, philosophy and politics. Deja sings with several choirs and provides occasional backing vocals for her musician brother. She is interested in Reiki, crystals, Buddhism and yoga. Steve went into IT consultancy after studying physics at Leicester University, culminating in a PhD in Theoretical Physics. He moved from Physics research to technical support and finally into business consultancy predominantly in the Energy sector. He has worked in locations as diverse as West Africa and the former Soviet Union as well as the UK. He has been fortunate enough to be able to combine his consultancy activities with his part time post-doctorate studies at Royal Holloway College. He has published numerous papers on a variety of subjects including a paper on Dark Energy that resulted in a featured article in the New Scientist in 1999. Deja’s parents and older brother were avid readers and her father wrote prodigious amounts of poetry as well as several novels. So she grew up in a literary household, surrounded by books and music and her early attempts at writing were inspired by her own love of fantasy novels. Unlike Steve, Deja dropped science at the earliest possible opportunity, concentrating on history and the arts. She graduated from Hull University with a respectable degree in Classical Studies and progressed from administration to IT support and training. She now works as a consultant, developing high quality business documentation. Although Deja had tried her hand at women’s short fiction and started a novel, it was only when Steve invited her to work with him on his book that she really focused her efforts. This was an opportunity to combine their individual fields of interest and develop their shared enthusiasm for history and philosophy.

Inspiration

Steve takes his inspiration from his early research and continuing involvement with Theoretical Physics. This is combined with his fascination in philosophy and politics. Deja enjoys a wide variety of fiction genres but her preferences tend towards fantasy, historical novels and crime. Favourite authors include Neal Stephenson, Phil Rickman, Sue Grafton, James Lee Burke, Robin Hobb and Lindsay Davis.