I was a freshman in highschool, and I was flipping through our literature book in English class when I fell across the above story. I read it...and I was both in awe and terrified. The year in the story was my future, and growing up as I did in the late 60s and early 70s, that threat was too real for me.

But the author...oh, I could not wait to find more of his work. The Illustrated Man happened to be in my public library and I checked it and many others out.

Suffice to say I knew then and there that I wanted to be a writer.

Over the years, I have practiced my craft. I took a job as a library page (and stuck with it and am now manager of a department thirty years later) and continued to write, submit, craft, rewrite, resubmit.

Paid off in the 80s when I sold my first short story to the Sword and Sorceress anthologies.

Now I am the author of seven books, many short stories, numerous articles...and I still love reading new Ray Bradbury stuff.

I've always loved that story, too, but been chilled by it at the same time. The image of the family charred onto the side of the house is the stuff of nightmares, and stuck with me for a long time. Congratulations on your succcessful writing career. Do you write fantasy primarily, or other things? Is there a website we can go to to see your books?