Over the years I've been a patron of the illustrative arts and early member of ASFA (The Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists,) a radar technician on a naval destroyer escort, a playwright and composer, a small press publisher, an editor of an academic journal, a book reviewer, a professional philosopher (who talked his way into a non-existent Masters Degree program at an Ivy League School), a spouse and business partner to a book cover artist, a computer repairman, a course designer and teacher, a technical writer, an early designer of CD-ROM based documentation, a steering committee member for the Silicon Valley Chapter of the Association for Software Design, an avid reader and book collector and a freelance writer. I spent 20 years working in the high tech industry, focusing on how to make technology accessible and understandable to ordinary people. I've gone back to school, studying communications and journalism and will soon be working for the Veterans Health Administration in an administrative support position.