"No one is safe around a writer." - Lanford Wilson, American playwright (1937-2011)Peter A. Smalley was not so much born as he was the object of a suitably ominous origin story. If only Marvel had been more attentive, "I, Writer" might even now be a successful comic and movie franchise starring Colin Farrell. So it goes.Like so many writers and mad scientists, Peter knew from an early age he was different from the other children. In the third grade he told his teachers he wanted to be a 'cemist' (sic) and although he has since fulfilled that precocious goal, his youthful ambitions in science came too late to fully obscure his first love; he had already written his first work of fiction a year prior, the accurately entitled "A Second Grade Tragedy." Since that tender age these twin abiding passions have illuminated the oft-crooked path leading through both his formal and informal educations.Peter was raised in Seattle, Washington. In 2011 his picture appeared in the New York Times for something that had nothing directly to do with writing, but coincidentally, his first self-published work also came out in 2011: the speculative fantasy novella "The Burning Times" (amzn.to/NnWUkS). This was quickly followed by the full-length fantasy novel "Grimme" (amzn.to/NQ6mMf), which likewise took place in an alternate-history setting - The Europas Cycle. He co-edited and contributed to the acclaimed anthologie "20,001: A Steampunk Odyssey" (amzn.to/LouVko). His Shakespearean Steampunk novella "Full Fathom Five" (amzn.to/SqSvgX) appears in the anthologie and as a stand-alone ebook. "Disbelief," his first Paranormal Romance thriller, came out in Summer 2012, followed by the Hardboiled Detective Noir tale "Emerald City Blues" (amzn.to/Z96eAH) in 2013. He is also the founder of Kindling Press, an independent epublishing imprint, along with co-founder Jason Vanhee.Peter can be found on Twitter, FaceBook, Google Plus, and occasionally hither but more often yon.