I grew up in Monmouth, Oregon, but now count Corvallis as my home town. Though I have mild-to-moderate Asperger's syndrome, I love acting as much as I do writing (as well as music).
My writing is influenced more by sci-fi television and movies than the works of other authors: (in no particular order) the Star Trek franchise, Star Wars, Xena/Hercules, Sliders, Primeval, the Stargate franchise, the CSI franchise, the movies based on the Marvel and DC superheroes, Merlin, Doctor Who (and its spin-offs), and others.
The authors whose works I've read and whose writing I most hope to emulate are MaCherie Doerfler and Aaron Allston.
Even so, in my stories I prefer to keep as close to the known laws of physics as I can, with a minimum of creative license. When it comes to the supernatural I do take a bit more license, but given a choice I prefer to stay as close as I can to legends and stories of the real world.
I hope my books can entertain, educate, expand the imagination, interest people in the topics that have caught my attention, and somewhere along the way make enough money that I can sustain their production.