Shameless biography

Hi fellow critters.  In case anyone is interested, here is a brief biography of yours truly.

I am a middle-aged freelance programmer, specializing in scientific applications. I have had four successful  computer books published, three by Wiley and one by Academic Press.  About a dozen of my short stories (fantasy and erotic romance) have been e-published.  A fantasy/romance novella that I co-wrote with Anastasia Rabiyah (www.RabiyahBooks.com) appeared in e-publication in February 2009, received rave reviews, and is now available in paperback from ww.PurpleSword.com.  My short story Through the Window/The Miracle won a Writer's Journal fiction contest and was published in their September/October 2009 issue.  Writer's Journal has also contracted an essay I wrote about how to keep the intrusive author out of your writing.  Finally, I occasionally work as an editor / manuscript doctor for technical books and papers.

I am fortunate to have a wife who is not only wonderful in all wifely things, but who also has taught high school English for 17 years, and who now teaches English as a Second Language.  So everything that I post here gets her stamp of approval first, and she's a harsh mistress.

Speaking of my wife, those of you who read much of my work will notice a recurring theme of strong women.  This might have something to do with the fact that my delightful wife happens to be a third-degree black belt.  I guess this is where my taste in women lies.

I have several novels in progress, and I rotate among them.  Although they are all roughly outlined start-to-finish, I occasionally hit a brick wall.  When this happens, I switch to another.  Months later my silent muse tears down the wall, and I go back to the novel that stopped me.

Some of you may notice that you cannot access my work in progress in my port.  This is because most publishers will not accept a manuscript that has been in general public circulation on WDC.  They consider it to be previously published.  However, they have no problem with work that has been posted in a private review group.  For this reason, I am a proud and active member of the Mainstream, Fantasy/SciFi and Erotica sections of "The Novel Workshop" .  If you are writing a novel and want to trade reviews with other serious writers of all experience levels, drop in and join.

These are my works in progress that appear and disappear on the forum:

Ixinia - A fun, high-action SciFi romp around the galaxy.  A middle-aged space-taxi driver finds himself thrown in with a tough lady special forces officer in a bid to save the galaxy from interstellar war.

Old Men and Busty Ladies - A long, serious, hard SciFi novel about tragedy at man's first outpost on Mars.

StarShift - A character-driven SciFi novel about man's first encounter with an alien civilization

The Eyes of Cassandra - A light SciFi novel about what happens when an alien artifact older than Earth itself is discovered and then stolen by a group who doesn't have a clue about what it really is.

Samiana - A hard SciFi / political novel about rebellion in the Martian colonies.

Lady Jessica - A light, baudy romance set in a world similar to medieval England.  A rebellious and ambitious young woman of noble blood joins with an outlaw-with-a-conscience in a romantic adventure across land and sea.

Please join our writing group so we can trade reviews!

TimM