MikeSchor

Born in Middletown, Rhode Island, my family moved to Arizona when I was ten. It was my childhood experiences at the Middletown Free Public Library that inspired me to pursue a career in Public Libraries.

I worked for several of the Waldenbooks stores in Arizona for about ten years and then moved to California to work for a publishers' rep company; Faherty and Associates. I was a representative for 32 book publishers. Toward the end of my first year with them I was covering most of California, Arizona and Nevada by car. At the end of my first year the company went through reorganization and I was a victim of LIFO (Last In First Out). It turned out to be sort of a blessing though, because about two months later the big Northridge quake hit (7.2) and I would have been on the freeway at that time very close to the epicenter.

Now, I'm back in Arizona and previously, I worked for a market research company as a Project Director, Product Manager and IT Support while I finished work on my Bachelor and Master degrees. I currently have an Associates of Specialized Technology in Electronics and Computer Engineering, a Dual Bachelors of Science in Business Administration and Bachelors of Arts in Management and a Masters of Information Resources and Library Science. I currently work for the Scottsdale Public Library's newest branch; Appaloosa as a youth services librarian.

I have been writing poetry, fantasy, speculative fiction and non-fiction since high school. I haven't sold any short stories or novels yet although I did sell some fantasy role-playing game adventure modules to some groups back in CA and co-published one article "Living the Future 6: Wow – Where Next? Student Reflections on a Professional Conference" for C&RL News in September 2006. I am currently working on a ten book series based on a character I played in Dungeons and Dragons on and off for almost nineteen years called "The Wanderings of Corwyn Driscol". "The Adventures of Vivian the Turtle" is my first picture book. I currently have another picture book series I'm working on called "Gary the Galactic Librarian". This series follows the adventures of Space Librarian named Gary who travels through space in a flying bookmobile helping children solve mysteries using the Dewey Decimal System.