I was born waaaay back in 1952 and had a very lucky "Baby Boomer" childhood. That meant I got to see all those great Hammer films at the cinema, I watched The Mickey Mouse Club and Disneyland on TV (not to mention Batman; The Wild, Wild West; Dark Shadows; Star Trek; Lost in Space and so many more cultural touchstones), and I knew and loved Vincent Price, Walt Disney, Bette Davis, Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield. I was 16 when Woodstock "happened" and man walked on the moon. I not only remember where I was when JFK was assassinated, I watched Nixon give his resignation speech. I saw The Exorcist first-run, did the Twist and the Frug, survived Viet-Nam, Civil Rights, disco, grunge and rap (barely). Somewhere in between all that, I became a writer. I started writing short stories as a child—inspired by Hammer's "Dracula, Prince of Darkness" and "The Gorgon." At college, I began working for the campus newspaper, and that led to my becoming a freelance writer after graduation. Since 1984, I've been contributing to several magazines, but my longest affiliation has been with Fangoria. The Blue Classroom is my first attempt at novel-length fiction. Hope it's more interesting than this essay!