i have an academic background in the philosophy of language, social and political thought, cultural theory, and aesthetics. i have a creative background in music, film, photography and literature. i also have a personal background in taoism, zen, yoga, wicca, tarot, paganism, shamanism, gurdjieff and ouspensky, hermeticism, qaballa, and ritual magic—all of which dovetails with a life-long interest and practice with martial arts (tai chi, chi gung, gung fu, tai kwon do), and which also informs my love of popular culture and genre pulp fiction (comics, pop music, etc.). my two published novels (monkey; anderson, by Pedlar Press) reflect all of this background and these interests. in fact they are in literary form a continuation of my academic interest in—indeed, my lifelong preoccupation with—research, writing, thinking, saying and playing. /dr mj boyce