Richard Ewald grew up in the small towns of northern California, from central valley farming communities to the snowy outposts in the northern Sierra Nevada Mountains. He learned t...mehr sehenRichard Ewald grew up in the small towns of northern California, from central valley farming communities to the snowy outposts in the northern Sierra Nevada Mountains. He learned to drive a car on winding mountain roads when he was eight, began playing guitar at nine, and started programming computers at ten. In his early teens he fell in love with the fantasy stories of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. They inspired him to create his own worlds and tell his own stories. He began crafting a fantasy world in junior high, and even wrote out the beginning of a novel, which he eventually completed after college. The other big influences in his childhood were endless video games at the local arcades and television sitcom reruns.Richard spent most of his early adult life in the Silicon Valley and the San Francisco and Monterey bay areas. He studied Classical Greek and software engineering in college and grad school, and he got married and started a career in the tech industry. He squeezed some writing time in occasionally, but did not make it a priority. During this period, he began quite a few books, and finished a handful. He had become a life-long fan of Stephen King in college, and he spent a lot of time learning from the master, especially King's book On Writing, a great book for all aspiring writers.When his long-awaited daughter finally arrived, Richard was ecstatic and suddenly very busy. He took a long break from actively writing, but he continued his lifelong habit of creating worlds and peopling them with characters that would grow to take on a life of their own. He finally left California and moved across the country to Atlanta. The "South" was like a foreign country to him, but he quickly grew to love it. The land of sweet tea, peaches, and Palmetto bugs has an undeniable charm all its own, but deep down inside he'll probably always be a Californian.weniger sehen