I was born in south-western Michigan a long time ago. I began writing when I discovered an old portable typewriter in our back closet, a large, dark place full of stuff. The typewriter ribbon still had ink in it. I wrote some teeny-tiny stories, maybe less than two hundred words, which I still have somewhere. It took longer to find the keys for a letter than it would have taken to write the story longhand.
I was a junior and senior in high school in Tucson, Arizona, and graduated from Pomona College, in Claremont, California. I moved back home for a year. There were pretty girls, but there were no bookstores. So I returned to Claremont and met Diane. She reads lots of books. We married in 1972, and moved to North Carolina, where I began my career as a full time writer while she pursued a PhD in mathematical statistics. She supports me in every way.
In 1986, I became a full time father, writing when I could for a while, but eventually giving up writing altogether for about three years. It was easier when Darcy started the cooperative play-group, and easier yet when she went to school, but she still took a lot of my time. In 2003, I became a full time writer again when Darcy went off to college, also at Pomona.
I have traditionally published nine novels (six of which have been re-issued by ReAnimus Press); several short stories (mostly for the Elf Quest anthologies); five non-fiction books on computers (I'm completely self-taught, and it probably shows); and a number of articles, columns, reviews, and so forth, also concerning computers (written in language that even I can understand).
Under my own imprint, Ogden House, I have published Stroad’s Cross; Sturgis; Dead Hand; Slaves of War; Freefoot (my collected stories for Blood of Ten Chiefs); A Closet for a Dragon and Other Early Tales; Cat Tales, Reminiscences; A Thing Forgotten — A Darkness Filled with Light; and The Gift and The Price.
I have also published under the Ogden House imprint a second edition of my epic heroic fantasy, The Black Ring (2,800 pages, 837,000 words). It was originally released by Double Dragon Press, which stopped doing business in 2021. They were very kind to me.
I am working on Star Kings, a collection of original stories about the very far future; and when that is done, I will return to work on The Empty House, a novel of Lovecraftian gothic horror, as if told by Shirley Jackson.
I ran my version of a writers’ workshop at various conventions for more than thirty years, and have had some success, since several people have not only finished their stories but sold them, and a couple have even won awards. I have also run a plotting workshop, which was an interactive lecture, which was a lot of fun, and which people found helpful. But this year, due to health reasons, I decided to retire, and I now attend science fiction conventions purely for the conversations. I have more fun that way.
I am a member of SFWA.
Note: the following two links take you off-site.
To see my Facebook page, click HERE. To see my blog, Allen Wold on Writing, click HERE.