I was raised on the East Coast, enduring the freezing winters and loving New York pizza by the slice, the kind you fold in half and start eating. After serving in the Army, I put down roots in California. Now a psychologist, I live here in the sun with my family and a brawny Pekingese. I really don’t miss the snow and the cold, but I do still miss the pizza. I have been enamored with science fiction/fantasy since I was (as my Georgia-born southern grandmother used to say) "knee-high to a grasshopper." My early loves were authors like Heinlein, Isaac, Herbert and Le Guin. More recent influences include Salvatore, Brooks, Eddings, Feist, Gabaldon and Carey, among many others. I enjoy reading, RPG video games, canning preserves, old time radio, and attending Highland Games festivals (my middle name is McMaster). I've been promising to learn how to play "Scotland the Brave" on the bagpipes for too long to take myself seriously anymore, but perhaps one day...