User:DavidMWPowers

I am a lifelong voracious reader (with a childhood built around Edgar Rice Burroughs, CS Lewis, Isaac Asimov, Anne McCaffery, Earl Stanley Gardner/AA Fair, Agatha Christie, WE Johns, CS Forester, Michael Crichton and a comprehensive stream of SF anthologies).

My father had a 10000-book library when I was ten (more like 100000 when he died) including complete or completing collections of all these authors and many others. He also wrote science fiction stories himself. But even as early as 3-4yo he told me “look it up” when I asked questions (though he was a polymath himself), so the Britannica also got a workout (I was expected to explain things to him rather than vice-versa). And yes, at a pre-school to early primary age, I was already interested in Quantum Mechanics, Relativity, Space Flight, Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, Psychology, Telepathy, Hypnosis, etc.

That not being quite enough, I read through my school libraries and most of the public libraries (although here at Blackwood I only got to M in the fiction section before e-books and Kindle Unlimited came along, so now that continues with online borrowing to the extent that they have real e-books rather than a-books). I read about 500 books a year at the moment (counting the individual novels/novellas in those great e-book box sets), although I don’t read quite as fast or voraciously as I used to. And once I get going I also write/type quite quickly.

My relatives couldn’t make up their minds whether I was destined to be a computer programmer/scientist/engineer, a brain surgeon or an astronaut, while my peers couldn’t decide between me being a walking computer or a walking dictionary. It turns out I couldn’t either. So yes my official life now revolves around all kinds of science, while my reading/writing life also has a strong focus on Speculative Fiction.

My first fantasy short story was published close to 60 years ago in audio and print form (I was 6, and it was used in teacher training by Sydney Teachers College; I was asked to rerecord it when I was 13). I've published several stories, novellas and novels as Marti Ward since 2019 (and have 300+ publications in the scientific and engineering literature as David M W Powers dating back to 1983).