Gary S. Towne

Gary has been living in BC since the late 70's, when he is not off on an yet another adventure abroad. He grew up in farm and ranch areas in Nevada and central BC, and has called the BC Lower Mainland home for the past 40 years. The son of a voracious reader, Gary spent much of his free days in the 1970's at local libraries and museums, rather than at video game arcades, where his friends who had more money to burn would often go. His love of books came from his mom, who spent much of the snowy winters gradually reading through most of a whole set of Encyclopedia Britannica for a bit of "light reading." His first career was in agriculture, having completed an apprenticeship in horticulture at BCIT. Later, he switched to a more academic career in ESL during and after his studies at Langara and UBC, studying International Relations (politics) and Asian Studies, plus Teaching ESL. He was soon married and with kids during his teaching position in Indonesia. He has many happy memories of gaming, camping, and road trips with his two tall boys, now grown. Collectively, they are a family of sci-fi/ fantasy/ gaming geeks. After a divorce and a decade of teaching locally, he taught in northeast China a few years at an international joint venture program through Capilano College. He re-married while there, and then came back to Canada to continue in ESL. Meanwhile, he met a renowned local artist, Raymond Chow, through his contacts at a local kung fu school. The two soon became good friends, and worked together on several projects, culminating in a series of souvenir art books. Gary continues to live in Greater Vancouver with his wife, while still working in the education field.