About the Author (Me)

I recently made the transition from full-time collegiate economics professor to full-time retiree, taking up residence in a small community north of Tulsa with my blushing bride of four-plus decades. After writing about, and lecturing on, esoteric academic facts, retirement provided the opportunity to tell the stories that were bouncing around my otherwise engaged brain. In my previous life I had authored textbooks and obscure articles for academic journals; built and wrote content for a popular website frequented by college students in search of intellectual enlightenment; and developed one of the first completely online Internet-based course.

When not immersed in arranging words into complete sentences—both fact and fiction—I undertook a variety of hobbies over the years, including sports, such as golf, softball, basketball, running, and swimming; woodworking, resulting in a houseful of furniture; and guitar, first playing and later building.

I was born and raised in the Great Plains of the United States of America, specifically the quiet, modest metropolis of Wichita, Kansas, planet Earth, Universe FR873BQ9U26, circa the latter half of the 20th Century. The youngest of four boys, I found solace in books. I read a lot of them and made a few adolescent attempts at writing, as well.

In high school I was introduced to the works of Issac Asimov, first through his scientific essays then quickly into his works of fiction, notably the Foundation trilogy. When I discovered he was not only a prolific author, but also a university professor, my career plans began to formulate. Step 1, obtain a PhD. Step 2, become a prolific author of science fiction.

Step 1 seemed easy enough… once I decided on a field of study. As an undergraduate, I briefly considered and just as quickly abandoned engineering… and journalism… and philosophy… and business. Enrolled in a required economics course for the soon to be discarded business major, I happened upon an excellent instructor.

So… economics it was.

Flash forward through a bachelors degree, a masters degree, and a doctorate, I found employment at Oklahoma State University. A funny thing happened on the way to Step 2—I thoroughly enjoyed studying and teaching economics. But I continued to write, dozens of articles in academic journals and other research monographs and multiple textbooks. I even wrote a couple of ‘works of fiction’ designed to help students better understand economics.

I never gave up on Step 2 entirely, occasionally drafting a few short stories that I unsuccessfully submitted for publication and even acknowledged Issac Asimov in my first textbook, but with a young growing family, my day job was a priority. Fact-based work came first.

With my academic diligence resulting in tenure and promotion to full professor, Step 2 finally seemed within reach. I drafted, edited, rewrote, and finished what would be my first complete novel, Great Plains.

Then the unexpected happened. The Internet, the World Wide Web, hit me squarely between Steps 1 and 2. Having spent the previous 15 years studying the importance of technological innovations to economic progress, I immediately realized that the Interent was the next big thing, that it would change the very fabric of society. And I wanted to do more that study it, I wanted to be part of it.

So, I learned programming code, created websites, set up my own webserver, and developed online content that would help students learn economics. This two decade effort eventually morphed into AmosWeb.com, which gave me a platform to combine my professional obsession with economics and my compulsion to tell stories. Along the way I developed what I believe was the first fully online course. This effort continued well into the 21st Century… until I realized the remaining hair on my head was white and I was eligible for Social Security.

A year into a retirement devoted to physical activity like woodworking, guitar making, shed building, and lawn mowing, I realized that my story telling days were not over. I dusted off (actually converted digital files from old operating systems) some of my previous nonacademic work. The first chapter of a prospective book about a college professor, his eccentric colleague Thaddeus, and a perplexing message from his estranged wife, which I had whimsically titled Surfing the Flint Hills, caught my attention. Another was about a college professor who was struck unconscious during a softball game… after which strange things began to happen, becoming The Game of Inyloct. Then, of course, the one completed novel, Great Plains, was begging for attention. I even uncovered various drafts of an untitled work about an old man, which I could never quite settle on the underlying story.

So… I wrote and rewrote, not worrying about teaching classes, preparing exams, or university leaders thinking I should be devoting my time to ‘academic’ stuff.