Bio
Jerry is a geek. There's just no getting around the fact, any more than you can say the sky's not blue (of course, if you get up high enough...). In high school Mrs. Shankland, his favorite English teacher, was terribly disappointed when he chose a career in physics. Career in physics. Right. Jerry ran out of steam after just four years of college and was condemned to a career in computers. He did OK there, writing educational software for fifteen years or so, helping people learn macroeconomics and the concepts of "up" and "down".
Secretly, the whole time, Jerry wanted to write stories. Every once in a while he'd even write one, to the rave reviews of people who would never tell him the truth. Then one fateful November he made the flop - he decided that writing would be the career and software would be the hobby. He laid himself off from his company and while half-heartedly looking for a new computer job really set to writing. Eventually he gave up pretending to be looking for gainful employment and hit the road, the real road, driving around the back highways of North America, freeloading off friends and distant relations. He set his eventual sights on Prague. It's cheap there
"What makes you think you'll be able to stop when you get there?" asked one of his hosts along the way. That remains unanswered.
Just because he started writing seriously didn't stop Jerry from being a geek. It's in the blood, baby. He created his own word processor, Jer's Novel Writer, to overcome his rather scattered brain so he could keep on writing a whole dang novel without having to worry so much about remembering stuff, or looking stuff up. The software has since gotten some pretty great reviews from other equally scattered writers. You can check it out at http://jerssoftwarehut.com. Sorry, kids, Mac only.
Jerry now spends his days writing software to help him learn Czech (rather than actually learning Czech) and writing. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, better than telling people "I have to work" and taking the 'ol laptop down to a bar to do some writing (although I've picked up a pretty wicked caffeine addiction). It is work, real work, smack-your-head-against-the-table work, but man, what a great life.
Jerry has recently completed a novel and is trying to wrestle another into final form. He likes his music loud, the way Bach and Vicious intended it to be, and enjoys beer a little more than he should. He can make forty-two different balloon animals, but they all look like wiener dogs.
Bibliography
Short Story. Memory of a Thing That Never Was. Fantasy and Science Fiction. July, 2006.
Short Story. Moonlight Sonata. Piker Press. January, 2005. link
Short Story. Tin Can. Piker Press. January, 2005. link
Short Story. God of Numbers. Piker Press. October 2005. link
Short Story. Earthchuckle. Piker Press. November 2005. link
Short Story. Serpent. Piker Press. February, 2005. link
Short Story. Storm of the Century. Piker Press. April 2006. link
The list of Piker Press stories given here is intended to represent a variety of themes and styles, from moody and atmospheric to humorous. If you enjoy them, there are plenty more. The complete list can be found here.