Kenneth A. Smith

I grew up an Air Force brat, but Dad was never stationed outside the American Midwest. However, I traveled extensively…Middle Earth, Narnia, and Lankhmar were a few of my stops along the way. Each new book presented a chance to explore an unknown world or revisit a familiar one. My library card served me well as a passport, and it still does.

I am a follower of Christ, a husband, a father, and a grandfather. Uncertain of the direction I wanted to head after getting my Bachelor's, I stuck around campus a bit longer and ended up with an MBA. I worked in finance/banking before switching over to a career in IT. I'm an empty-nester living in Missouri, if you count living with your wife and three dogs an empty nest.

A few of my author influences, along with Tolkien, Lewis, and Leiber — referenced above — are Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson, Alan Dean Foster, and Stephen R Donaldson. The most influential fiction book is a book I read in second grade — Mr. Popper's Penguins by Florence and Richard Atwater. It started a lifelong fascination, some would say obsession, with the formal birds. It doesn't hurt that I also identify with them…short, round, and waddly.