Believe it or not, I'm a fifth-generation Angeleno. I was born in the ‘40s when the major cause of pollution in L.A. was residents burning trash in incinerators. A few years later, the city fathers banned incinerators in favor of landfills, but inexplicably ripped out the red cars in favor of the personal automobile. Soon, the L.A. basin became clogged with suburbs, freeways, hydrocarbon haze-better known as smog-and aberrant behavior. Given that heritage, I've been trying to escape ever since....

You might think "escape" was why I've made a career of writing fiction and sometimes time-travel, but the answer is more complicated. Stay tuned for a memoir. Until then, a brief bio:

I was raised in a family of screenwriters. My father, William Tunberg, wrote "Old Yeller," my uncle, Karl Tunberg, wrote "Ben Hur." My first job was thinning pears in the Bear Creek orchards in southern Oregon. Since then, I've worked as a ma­chinist, commercial fisherman, semipro baseball player, bartender, actor, literary agent, film technician and lighting director. I re­ceived a BA in philosophy from Brown University, was commissioned in the U.S. Marine Corps, served as a captain during the Vietnam War, later earned an MA from San Fran­cisco State and an MFA from the Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa, thanks to a gradu­ate fellowship and the G.I. Bill. I've traveled exten­sively in the Third World and-Venceremos-lived in Cuba for a short time which inspired Papa and Fidel. I was a university professor for three years, then-back in L.A.-an intern at the Ameri­can Film Institute. I've written and optioned ten screenplays and have published four novels. Two have been made into films, including my best­selling book, Time After Time. I co-pro­duced the feature film, "Rattlers," have also written two TV pilots which have aired on NBC.

I recently finished a sequel to Time After Time called "JACLYN THE RIPPER" which Forge Books will publish in 2009. Currently, I'm writing a new science fiction novel and planning a more permanent escape. My mantra, in the words of Tom Stoppard: "Every exit is an entrance somewhere else...."

KARL ALEXANDER