Little Squirrels Can Climb Tall Trees (25 page)

M
ICHAEL
M
URPHY
is somewhere between eighteen and eighty-eight—the number varies from day to day depending on his mood and his energy level. He first thought about writing when he was very young, but put the idea aside in order to celebrate his fifth birthday and then forgot about it for a year or two. Periodically he toyed with the idea but each time rejected it as pure folly. It wasn’t until he was an old man of twelve that he wrote his first book. A long dry spell followed before he wrote his next book. Whenever he needs a laugh he looks at those early writings. He has written science fiction and romance, and he has collaborated on one nonfiction history book.

He and his partner have traveled extensively, trying to cover as much of the world as possible. When not traveling, they live in Washington, DC, with their best friend, a throwaway dog they adopted many years ago. To pay the bills, Michael is Director of Information Technology for a national organization based in Washington, DC. All in all he’d rather be writing full-time but hasn’t yet figured out how to make that a viable option.