G. Edward Marks

I have been a fan of science fiction since childhood. Around the age of eleven I began building what I called “space panels” using parts salvaged from old radios and electrical appliances. I knew, starting at that early age, I wanted to be an electrical engineer and build robots. But when I graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in engineering, I discovered nobody was making robots. The closest thing was the development of missile guidance systems. Not wanting to build things that killed people, I decided to work for the local power company—Florida Power Corporation.

During my career with the company, I moved from engineering to management, and eventually to vice president. The best job of my career was supervising the Energy Control Center. This is the hub of the network where power plants are dispatched, energy purchases and sales are made, and in those days, the transmission system was operated. Much of it was done by computer control and was the closest I came to building robots.

My grandfather was a wonderful storyteller, and over the years he, my brother, my sister, and I took turns telling stories. It was then that I knew I wanted to be a storyteller. As an adult, I planned to write fiction when I retired. When my boys were teenagers, we played Dungeons and Dragons, watched releases of The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones. We would take turns creating the dungeons, guiding each other and fellow players through the adventures and challenges they provided. In a way, roleplaying is a form of storytelling, but with the “listener” actively participating in the tale and helping to shape the story. As a result, I became a fan of fantasy as well.

Upon retirement, my wife and I became heavily involved in bat conservation. And so, storytelling took a back seat once again. But after twenty years of working with bats, we retired and I finally had time to start writing stories. The first book was based on a dungeon I created when my boys were young. It is titled Castle of the Kren Lord and later became a series.