"The Gerfnit Chronicles is wonderful! ... kids would love it. �The premise of this book is unique and of great interest to kids. �The manuscript is really well written."
- Alice Flanagan, Flanagan Publishing Services
"Mike Pickard´s style of writing reminds me both of Heinlein and early Phillip Dick. �Unlike some science fiction books, the appendices were extremely helpful."
- Wayne Allen Sallee, author
The Frobs were merely curious about the inhabitants of the third planet orbiting around a distant sun. �The natives were rumored to have unique attributes that the Frobzbians wanted to understand. �
At least, that´s the way the mission started. �
But when Gerfnit the mission specialist, surgically altered to look like an Earthling child, decided it wanted to make a return visit after an enjoyable summer at camp, Earth suddenly drew the attention of several other planets and species, not all with friendly intentions. Now, both the planet Earth and Gerfnit were in grave danger as the visitor from Frobzb went from being camper and data collector to Earth´s self-appointed protector.
If Michael Pickard had been born in the 15th Century, he would have hung out with Leonardo da Vinci, who didn�t choose between art and science. Mike doesn�t care to make that choice either, despite being born in the mid 1900�s. Rather than struggle or choose between them, Mike has spanned the two disciplines, adding creative arts to his professional work, and embedding current and imagined technologies in his creative writing.
Mike has been an information technology practitioner for over a quarter of a century, covering all aspects of computing hardware and software, except for soldering. He has written many published technical reports and position papers. In addition, he was lead columnist for a microcomputer club newsletter for over ten years, lacing his articles with humorous vignettes describing his trials and tribulations as an end user.
Mike has expressed himself creatively in diverse ways. He was editorial cartoonist for the student newspaper at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois where he attended school. His other exploits include acting in amateur theater, co-authoring a comedic play, sculpting in clay and paper mache�, and inventing a narrowly distributed board game. Fortunately, Mike doesn�t have to change tools when moving between his technical and creative projects. His Apple Macintosh computer serves him well on both fronts.
Mike´s short story, Hardwired, won 2nd prize in the 22nd Annual Ray Bradbury Writing Contest.
Mike is hard at work on Before Gerfnit, Before Earth, the prequel to his ongoing science fiction novel, The Gerfnit Chronicles. Mike lives in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois with his wife and an occasional guinea pig or two.