Growing up, Matt Ranlett consumed every kind of story he could get his hands on, from Hardy Boys novels read under the blankets with a flashlight to sitting on the floor of his father's office listening to The Lord of the Rings read aloud. After a few halfhearted attempts at writing short fiction and poetry in high school, Matt went to college and focused on computers and business. Ever the story teller, Matt became active in the local technology user group communities where technology presentations, magazine articles, and books on Microsoft's SharePoint product offering lead to national recognition from Microsoft in the form of a MVP award (http://mvp.microsoft.com/profiles/Matt), eight years running.