Aren’t you dead?

To paraphrase Mark Twain on the premature publication of his obituary: The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. I have noticed that some online author/publication directories list the dates 1944-1990 in parentheses after my name. Where those dates came from, I don’t know. Neither of them is correct. Nineteen forty-four is a bit before my time, and since I am writing this in 2011, the 1990 date appears to be a little off as well. Unless you believe in vampires.

Which writers influenced you the most?

Ray Bradbury was the seed from which my writing grew. I read The Martian Chronicles, then quickly devoured everything I could find that this amazing author had written. Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck also were strong influences.I also learned a lot from Stephen King, especially about writing novels.

What are you working on now?

Empath, a young adult dystopian novel about a sixteen-year-old girl with a mutation – she can feel other people’s emotions – and is persecuted because she is different. My novelette “A Friend of the Family,” originally published in Space and Time in 1987 and included in my collection The Moaning Rocks and Other Stories, inspired Empath but there the connection ends. By the time I had worked the idea around the convoluted pathways of my brain the story, the characters, and even the mutation in question had changed dramatically.

In February 2012 I will publish an ebook edition of A Friend of the Family, my novelette which originally appeared in slightly different form in Space and Time and collected in its original form in The Moaning Rocks and Other Stories. The new version has been revised and expanded slightly. It will be available on most digital platforms.

I’m at work on Book II of my In Human Form trilogy (working title: Transition). It is scheduled for publication, in paperback and digital, in October 2012.