“Hi. I’m Andy. Know what my favorite thing is?”
“Uh…no?”
“When somebody tells me, ‘I don’t usually read this kind of book, but I loved your book.’ I try hard to write that kind of book.”
“Okay. Why are you telling me this? We just met.”
“Because I’m…you know. An introvert. I don’t get how small talk works.”
“Ah. Got it. Maybe this’d go better if you let your books talk for you.”
“Oh wow, that’s such a good idea. Now I can go back to my computer, and you can read the rest of this stuff by yourself. Thanks!”
Afflictions and Graces
Once upon a time, Malice—ancient malevolence, chiefest and eldest of afflictions—had a very good day. Not for one moment did he imagine this day would upend his life. But then, Malice had never been very good at imagining.
Once upon a time, Charity—lowliest commoner in the lowly hamlet of of Musty Spurge—had a very bad day. Not for one moment did she worry this day would upend everyone’s lives. And Grace was remarkably good at worrying.
Neither Grace nor Malice nor anyone else could have worried or imagined that what followed would rewrite their tidy world.
Andy’s Obligatory (and Curiously Third-Person) Biography
Once upon a time, when Andy was ten, he fell in love with writing.
His debut novel, Attack of the Dinosaurs, was seventeen pages long. Badly typed on a not-yet-vintage manual Smith Corona, it was bound in scissor-cut gray cardboard with white yarn tied in a bow. It was the heart-pounding tale of Alaskan scientists using nuclear bombs to prospect for gasoline and—as happens all too often—inadvertently waking frozen dinosaurs. Without spoiling too much, things didn’t end well for the dinosaurs. (Things never end well for the dinosaurs.)
He promised himself that one day he’d write an even longer book.
Besides writing fiction, Andy has been a library page, dairy science programmer, teacher, technical writer, healthcare software developer, nonprofit web developer, and official Corporate Philosopher. He had degrees in philosophy and computer science, and studied artificial intelligence in grad school long before it was cool.