L.E. Modesitt Jr.
When I was in my late twenties, a friend suggested that, since I was an avid SF reader and had been since I was barely a teenager, that since it didn't look like the poetry was going where I wanted, I might try writing a science fiction story. I did, and the first story I ever wrote was 'The Great American Economy.'
'The One-Eyed Man' is a novel that was one I never intended to write.
I started writing poetry in high school because I wanted desperately to write, but somehow, writing stories didn't appeal to me, and I loved the flow and the feel and sense of poetry, especially that of what one might call formal verse.
My experiences in the military, the private sector, and as a congressional staffer were at times almost enough to drive me crazy. Writing offered the all-too-often-cited creative outlet.
Science fiction writers have usually been very poor prognosticators of the future, either in literary or technological terms, and that's because we're all too human and, I think, have the tendency to see what we want to or, in the case of those more paranoid, what we fear.
I actually started out as a poet in high school. I published in small literary magazines for probably about ten years. I entered the Yale Younger Poet contest every year, until I was too old to be a younger poet, and I never got more than a form rejection letter from them.
I'm not sure there are too many people who write what I write.
If I recall correctly, I think I signed my first contract with Tor in 1983.
I only did about one novel a year while I was working full time, but since 1993, I've averaged two and a half books a year.
I've often said that there's no one thing that I do or have done that is particularly unique. There have been a lot of other authors who were in the military. There have been a few others who were pilots. There have certainly been a lot of other people who were in politics or served congressional staffs.
According to my royalty statements, 'The Green Progression' sold 392 copies in hardcover.
Deities are invented by fallible and finite beings in the hope and desire to create immortal perfection; unfortunately, such deities only reflect their creators and inspire their followers to similar imperfections.Collection: Perfection
Without power, knowledge is useless. without knowledge, faith is tyranny. Without understanding, humanity is blind, and without all four, it is doomed.Collection: Understanding
Never mistake law for justice. Justice is an ideal, and law is a tool.Collection: Mistake
Minds, like parachutes, function better when open, but, like fists, they strike harder when closed.Collection: Optimistic
Love of another is merely empty flattery and self-deception for one who cannot accept himself without pretense.Collection: Self
To that which is born, death is certain; to that which is dead, birth is certain.Collection: Birth
If you do good because you expect to be rewarded, it is greed.Collection: Greed
Humans were eventually irrational creatures gifted with the power of rationality.Collection: Irrational
No society that places the individual above itself will survive; but neither will any society that places the individual below itself.Collection: Individual
Hatred is a form of faith, distilled by passion to remove all rationality.Collection: Passion
Most people don’t care who rules, as long as their lives don’t change.Collection: Long
While every new fantasy author is hailed as unique, new, and different, Brandon Sanderson's ELANTRIS does indeed provide an absorbing adventure in a unique, different, and well-thought-out fantasy world, with a few nifty twists as well.Collection: Adventure