I grew up in New York, Central America, Europe and the Middle East. I’m a film and theather producer, a technologist, a musician, and a writer.
As a writer: my short-form fiction has appeared in the MechMuse Anthology alongside David Farland, Kevin J. Anderson, Eugie Foster, and a number of others (it was a great collection). My first sci-fi novel was released through East India Press. It was immediately picked-up by StoryBundle, won the grand prize at Hollywood Book Pipeline, Best Sci-fi/Fantasy/Horror Gold Medal IPPY, Best Sci-fi at the London Book Festival, Best Sci-fi at the Beverly Hills Book Awards, and runner-up for Best Sci-fi at the LA Book Festival. My second book that series (Beowulf) is finished and due out in 2020, and the third is in the works, with more to follow. I’m also writing a historical fantasy series: the first book is finished, but a release date isn’t set yet.
As a producer: I run the non-profit MAST media accelerator and am producing an animated film directed by Jared and Jerusha Hess, starring Tim Blake Nelson, written by Hubbel Palmer and Chris Bowman, with Animation Supervisor Kelly Loosli, and animated by a phenomenal group of artists. And I’m Managing Partner of 42nd.club; we put shows on Broadway, and in 2019 had 37 Tony nominations and 9 wins.
As a technologist: I’ve published academically through IEEE and several other pubs, and spoken at SIGGRAPH, BIA/Kelsey’s ILM, VFX and elsewhere. I invented DigiClay Animation and Cryptocast streaming encryption, among others. I’ve won some awards, and some gratifying recognition (the Gartner Group called my work among “the most visionary in information security”). And I love this one: twice, I’ve been commended by the US Army for oustanding research (a good story, that). I’ve done some cutting-edge work in the medical field, and my current interest is in broadening the availability of healthcare.
As a musician: I’m a classically-trained countertenor. I sometimes sing baritone, but on the main I sing very high (roughly the same range as a mezzo-soprano). I sing a lot of very old music written for counertenor, a lot of not-quite-so-old music written for castrato, and a fair bit of new music, as well. Dowland, Purcell, Bach, Händel, Monteverdi, Babbitt, Britten and many others. I have a post-tonal (but it’s beautiful, I promise) album in process, a collaboration with composer James Guymon. I’m also working (albeit very slowly; I’m writing, after all) on a jazz album.
My parents are scientists—my dad a Princeton physicist and technologist, and my mom a Columbia biochemist. I was raised bilingually in Spanish (my dad’s family lived in Mexico for a few generations, and we lived in Guatemala). We lived abroad and we travelled, but we were teaching English and digging with archaeologists; we weren’t on Caribbean cruises or jet-setting. There may have been a tarnished silver spoon in the drawer somewhere, but with eight kids in the family, no one of us could hold it for long. It was an idilic upbringing for producing inquisitive, globally-minded, pragmatic generalists; and that’s what we became.
As an adult I lived in Los Angeles for about a decade. I live, now, in the beautiful Arizona desert with my formidable wife (an actor with a UCLA PolySci degree who I met on stage doing Fiddler on the Roof) and the world’s three most delightful children: Baruch, Adi, and Ora.