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My name is Sam Penny. I was born
in Oklahoma, went to school at OU and then to the University
of Illinois for my Masters in Physics. I moved with my family
to California in 1960. I am now retired. Writing and traveling
are my avocations.
My wife and I live full-time
in our Recreational Vehicle, a fifth-wheel trailer pulled by
a Dodge truck, following the best weather from place to place
throughout the North American Continent. It gives us a chance
to meet the wonderful people of this country and to research
interesting ideas for writing.
Prior to retirement, I spent
my working life around the San Francisco Bay Area, beginning
at the University of California Lawrence Radiation Laboratory
in Berkeley working for Nobel laureate Dr. Luis Alvarez.
In 1970 I joined with three partners
to form a startup software and electronics company, a fairly
novel idea at the time. Though we have all since left, I am proud
to say that the company we started still remains. I worked as
a physicist, a computer software designer, an engineer, a computer
scientist, a geophysicist, an entrepreneur, and a corporate executive.
Over that time I authored a number of technical and trade articles.
Today I write occasional magazine
articles on life in an RV, but my passion is writing larger contemporary
fiction focusing on disaster scenarios, what some people consider
old-style science fiction, something involving big science. A
major earthquake along the New Madrid was an easy choice. The
reawakening of the Yellowstone caldera bears investigation as
a future project. A flip in the great ocean currents to produce
a new glacial period would also be entertaining (then they produced
the movie Day After Tomorrow).
My entrepreneurial spirit steered
me into self-publishing Memphis 7.9, and the new Print-On-Demand
technology offered the means. Besides, at my age. I had this
feeling that time is running out, both for me and for the people
in the central United States. I was unwilling to wait three years
for the publishing industry to make up their minds and plod along
with my book.
So today, our lifestyle and avocations
keep my wife and me very busy and fully occupied. We drive around
the country on a continual book tour. I do radio interviews and
write and work on this website when I have time. We sample the
latest in technology, while keeping our base of operations ready
to move out of danger. We are survivalists.
If you travel, too, or happen
to be in the path of one of our itineraries, maybe we will see
you down the road someday.
Sam Penny
1/15/2005 |
