Utentepatriciasbowne

Hello, and pleased to meet you! I read all sorts of stuff and write light fantasy and academic satire set in a modern university of magic, the Royal Academy at Osyth.

I've been selling Royal Academy at Osyth stories for over ten years now, and my first novel, 'Advice From Pigeons,' came out in February from Double Dragon e-books. They say to write what you know, and I know the academic environment.

Since the age of 3, I have been hanging around university science departments. I've spent time collecting fishes and invertebrates, cataloguing museum specimens, putting up educational displays (one of which involved live rattlesnakes), creating scientific illustrations, supervising student field work in lakes, rivers, and on coral reefs, assisting on deep-sea sampling cruises and in a giant clam farm, taking the jaws out of a 7-foot shark, and picking through piles of dead fish from Alberta to Taiwan. In the process, I've accumulated a B.Sc in Biology, B.A. in Humanities, M.S in Marine Biology, and Ph.D. in Zoology.

I now work at a small college in the Midwest, where I've added experience in the less fishy aspects of academic life. I've worked there for over twenty years including a 6-year stint as a Dean, during which time we built a new building -- an experience which inspired my most successful story, 'Want's Master'.

Though I always wanted a small-college teaching position, when I got one I missed the excitement of a large university. Rather than go hang around the local university, making myself dissatisfied and neglecting my day job, I created my own: the Royal Academy of the Arcane Arts and Sciences at Osyth. Surf over to my homepage at www.raosyth.com to find out about the Osyth stories, upcoming novels, and join the discussion of Academic Magic on my blog.