D H Friar

I've been enthralled by science fiction almost as long as I can remember. The top of my little head exploded the first time I saw the 1951 movie classic, The Day The Earth Stood Still. I identified with Gort, the robot. A few years later I read Asmov's Foundation Trilogy, leading to my very first fan letter, which he graciously answered. I stalked him for a while after that, but stopped before he could take out a restraining order.

From my father, I inherited a great fear of spending time behind bars. That philosophical stance has informed most of my major life choices. After spending my 20's in the usual random selection of jobs, my plan to run away to the circus was derailed by sobriety, marriage and medical school- a dangerous combination if ever there was one.

I've changed the names to protect, well, me, and so far it seems to be working. Most of my alien characters are based on family members, so if you catch a whiff of authenticity in my writing, that's probably the source. Years of toil in the trenches of psychiatry have given me a keen understanding of human nature, something which, having learned, is frightfully hard to un-learn. Since many people fear psychiatrists- rightly so- I usually tell people I'm a proctologist. This leads to some awkward conversations, as you might imagine, but so does admitting I'm a psychiatrist.

I'm currently living in New Mexico, in what Philip K. Dick might call the Neutral Zone. If you notice the absence of identifying tattoos, birthmarks, age, gender, and race in this account, that's not an accident. Given the choice between notoriety and invisibility, I'll opt for obscurity every time. It makes staying out of jail so much easier.