In The Clan of the Cave Bear, theNeanderthals could not rob Ayla of her essential humanity, nor could the junglesubdue Lord Greystoke's inherent nobility in Tarzan of the Apes. In theyear 2055, young Grey Waters is faced with a group of advanced computer systemsdetermined to create a puppet governor capable of fulfilling their strategicgoals. Will this child, orphaned on an abandoned moon base, develop into ahuman robot? Or is there something in every person that can struggle above themost adverse circumstances?In this, the first book of the Waters of the Moonseries, young Grey faces a series of daunting challenges, including the enmityof the Security Computer and the Machiavellian schemes of his guardian, theLife Support Computer. Merely a pawn in the plans of the computers, Grey isvalued by some computer systems but deemed expendable by others. Intelligent,thoughtful, and anxious to please, Grey gradually learns of his human heritage.He's not impressed. Then, as he reaches maturity, Grey finally discovers thetrue intent of his computer masters and realizes the fate of all mankind mayone-day depend on Tranquility's leadership. Is it a responsibility he willleave to the computers, or find a way prevail over their ambitions?
After a brief career in yellow journalism for a political machine, I started writing science fiction. I've always enjoyed the old-time writers from science fiction's golden age, though most of my current reading is confined to history and biography. The premise of a child raised under unusual circumstances seemed especially interesting, for it examines what makes us what we are. Kipling did this in Jungle Book, as Edgar Rice Burroughs did in Tarzan and Jean Auel in Clan of the Cave Bear. The Waters of the Moon series, (aka the Tranquility books), seeks to discover how a child raised by comupters against the back-drop of war might struggle to achieve a normal life.
The 9th and final Tranquility book is being released in 2010, called Tranquility's Last Stand. Two new books, Slave of Akrona and Magistrate of the Dark Land, will be available to Kindle readers this summer and can be found in print by the end of the year. More information can be found at watersofthemoon.com
I was born in the Yankee-occupied San Fernando Valley in tbe once-great State of California. My father, Roy Urbach, worked as a film editor at Warner Brothers, and he helped give me a strong sense of story-telling. I attended school at California State University Northridge but learned creative writing at Los Angeles Valley College several years later. I am married to the paper doll artist Kwei-lin Lum.
