Who is Lou?

Increasingly, readers ask for more about me, the person behind the books.

But here's the thing. I'm a private--even shy--person.  I want you to read my (or our--maybe I'm a consortium of six people living in different countries) books, not think about me personally. I don't want to talk about my age, sex, ethnicity, sex life, or to share a picture of my kids, give you my home phone number, or describe my political views. Perhaps I'm only a cleverly designed computer program for writing books. (I think I am not...but if the program were very cleverly designed, of course it would think that!)

I value my readers tremendously, please do understand. We may live in a culture of over-share nowadays, but I don't. I've never been on FB as an individual (nor have any of my immediate family members, of which I have somewhere between 0 and 40.) I have never once given my real birth date or phone number to a social media or mail site. I even disable all my computer cameras. I love my privacy that much.

Many writers who feel as I do buy a stock photo, do some Photoshop on it, and call it their picture. So if you thought you were seeing all other writers' real faces or sexes, you were mistaken.

Here are a few things I am willing to share:

Not surprisingly, I watch documentaries on disasters, geology and astronomy. (For instance, I really liked PBS's Australia: The First 4 Billion Years.)

I also like comedy programs, but I only watch them on DVD or Prime streaming. I have a nearly complete collection of Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes. Archer is great, too. Arrested Development. Odd, edgy, or irreverent comedy appeals to me most.

I play a few musical instruments. I’m an amateur astronomer. I've volunteer-taught stargazing, and I've volunteered in a natural history museum. I've participated in volunteer citizen science at Zooniverse. I've also volunteered at literacy programs and animal shelters.

That's a little slice of me, for people who care. Now it's back to writing more books.