Renaissance has also published collections of my short stories, The Sands of Time, Mordrake's Apprentice, and Love Among the Stars, nine SF novels, The Isaac Project, For Love of Kumiko, Pawns of Tomorrow, Star Tower, Out of Time, Takeover, The Artifact , Pawns of Tomorrow, Knights of Tomorrow and The Bagod, dark paranormal fantasies The Laws of Magic, Castle Darkest Night and Dinner with Dracula, and my humorous fantasy series The Books of Retslu.

I was born and raised in a working class neighborhood in Chicago. I believe my love of reading stems from my parents and grandparents, who were all avid readers. As a child, one of my favorite things was hanging out at the library or browsing in flea markets for books I could afford. One day my parents took me to see a most wondrous movie, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It made me a believer. From that time on, I read every Oz book I could get my hands on. I also loved comic books, especially the ones in the SF genre, Planet Comics, Superman, Captain Marvel, etc. I also liked mathematics and science, especially astronomy.

When I was twelve or so, I discovered the pulp magazines. They had garish covers and were printed on blotting paper, but the insides were marvelous. Even the letter columns were interesting. In these magazines, and the slicks and paperbacks that followed a few years later, I learned to love such writers as Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Robert Silverberg and so many others. About that time I decided I wanted to write in the genre, but never got started until many years later.

I was drafted into the army near the end of the Korean War and was sent to Germany, where I worked as a microwave repairman. Also, I married a girl who went to the same high school as I did, who I met at a party after I graduated . We've been married over fifty years now. We have four wonderful girls, ten grandchildren (who are now adults ) and one spunky nine-year-old great-granddaughter.