C. Stuart Hardwick is an L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest winner, a Colonnade Writing Contest winner, and a James White Award semi-finalist. He grew up on a cold-war airbase in South Dakota, a crossroads between the Wild West and the Space Age with a little Jurassic Park on the side. A science fair robot led to software development and a stint working at Softdisk Publishing with genius game designer, John Carmack (the creator of "Doom" who played his music way too loud). Writing for an online technical journal fanned a new love for word craft and reawakened the old love--storytelling.Along the way, Stuart married an aquanaut, got hugged by a manatee, and studied at UC Berkeley. He lives in Houston with his family and his urban sled-dog, and has been known to wear a cape.