I am a country boy who grew up in the Valley of the Moon, in Sonoma County, north of San Francisco. My family moved to Glen Ellen in 1937, adding four to the population of 250. My Dad was a rock-hound, so I came naturally by my interests in geology, taking my first course in the subject at Santa Rosa Junior college, where I received my AA degree in 1950. I finished my upper division classes at U.C., Berkeley, receiving my BA in Geology in 1958. I went directly to work for six years with the U.S Geological Survey, involving laboratory and field-work throughout the western United States, including Alaska. Simultaneously, I worked on my Masters degree in Geology at San Jose State University, completing my course work in 1964. That same year I accepted a position as an Engineering Geologist with the U.S. Bureau or Reclamation, based in Sacramento. For the next five years I worked on engineering projects involving the storage and moving of water at a number of dam sites, tunnels and canals in California and Oregon.
Since mid-1997 I have developed an Internet Website (syzygyjob.com) with innovative Sitemaster, Will Fletcher. The site has been very popular, and often receives more than 200 hits per day, and more than 100 hits per hour following my five-hour interview on the Art Bell radio show. I have also appeared on Frontline, Sightings, Strange Universe, Northwest Afternoon, Town Meeting, Bill Cosby Show, The Other Side, Two at Noon, Evening Matinee, Jeff Rense show, George Putnam Show, Mitch Battros Show, Laura Lee Show, and many other broadcasts. In 1991 I was featured in the Farmer's Almanac, and my annual predictions are now published in the Dot Tide Tables.
Rita Trevalyan
Roman Rhapsody
Rita Trevalyan lives in Cupertino, CA USA with her significant other and the ghosts of four cats. She has wanted to write since shortly after she learned to write in longhand.
She has been writing ever since, off and on. Lately, more on than off. "When I'm not writing, I feel a little off, and more than a little crazy. I don't write because I want to. I write because I have to."
She finally got e-published in 2006 after decades of trying print houses. She has a 26 year old daughter from a previous
Imperial Entanglement. She enjoys reading, embroidery, crochet, dancing, movies, and participating in the Renaissance Scottish guild to which she belongs.
Lee Child
Nothing To Lose
Lee Child was born in 1954 in Coventry, England, but spent his formative years in the nearby city of Birmingham. By coincidence he won a scholarship to the same high school that JRR Tolkien had attended. He went to law school in Sheffield, England, and after part-time work in the theater he joined Granada Television in Manchester for what turned out to be an eighteen-year career as a presentation director during British TV's "golden age." During his tenure his company made Brideshead Revisited, The Jewel in the Crown, Prime Suspect, and Cracker. But he was fired in 1995 at the age of 40 as a result of corporate restructuring. Always a voracious reader, he decided to see an opportunity where others might have seen a crisis and bought six dollars' worth of paper and pencils and sat down to write a book, Killing Floor, the first in the Jack Reacher series.
Killing Floor was an immediate success and launched the series which has grown in sales and impact with every new installment. Lee Child has now written 12 Jack reacher novels with 14 million books sold so far. Stay tuned.
Brett Williams
Debt for Sale
Brett Williams provides a sobering and frank investigation of the credit industry and how it came to dominate the lives of most Americans by propelling the social changes that are enacted when an economy is based on debt. Williams argues that credit and debt act to obscure, reproduce, and exacerbate other inequalities. It is in the best interest of the banks, corporations, and their shareholders to keep consumer debt at high levels. By targeting low-income and young people who would not be eligible for credit in other businesses, these companies are able quickly to gain a stranglehold on the finances of millions. Throughout, Williams provides firsthand accounts of how Americans from all socioeconomic levels use credit. These vignettes complement the history and technical issues of the credit industry, including strategies people use to manage debt, how credit functions in their lives, how they understand their own indebtedness, and the sometimes tragic impact of massive debt on people's lives.
Credit and debt appear to be natural, permanent facets of Americans' lives, but a debt-based economy and debt-financed lifestyles are actually recent inventions. In 1951 Diners Club issued a plastic card that enabled patrons to pay for their meals at select New York City restaurants at the end of each month. Soon other "charge cards" (as they were then known) offered the convenience for travelers throughout the United States to pay for hotels, food, and entertainment on credit. In the 1970s the advent of computers and the deregulation of banking created an explosion in credit card use÷and consumer debt. With gigantic national banks and computer systems that allowed variable interest rates, consumer screening, mass mailings, and methods to discipline slow payers with penalties and fees, middle-class Americans experienced a sea change in their lives.
Brett Williams is Professor of Anthropology at American University. She is also the author of Upscaling Downtown: Stalled Gentrification in Washington, D.C.
