'Open my veins and words drop out.'

or

'So many books to read, only one lifetime.'

Biographical details are used to allow readers to get a handle on the writer whose material they either love or loathe. It's rarely read of those for whom you have no reaction. It can also be markedly embarrassing from the egotistical side when the only difference between you and me is that I'm writing this and not someone else.

I was born in 1957 and of the right age to watch the first manned space-flights, most of the Gerry Anderson shows, Doctor Who, Star Trek and other SF shows and films the first time around on UK television. In 1968, I stayed in the local cinema for three performances of 2001: A Space Odyssey. I had a prodigious appetite for comics and books and thrived on Science Fiction. My other natural talents are a mixture of the sciences and the arts that made it rather easy to draw and write.

For a number of years, I ran the X-Men Fan Club in the UK under the non-de-plume 'Geoff Lamprey' (figured it would be easier to spell and pronounce), producing 24 issues of its clubzine, Cerebro, and APAs. It was the financial burden that eventually curtailed the main productions. One APA remains, X-AP, where the few who remain use it to hone their skills. I have a rather useful ability in bringing out the best in people with comments tending to steer people how to get the best out of their work.

Some of the people who passed through my hands and work professionally now include John Gatehouse, who's written for most UK comics and many children's animation series on TV and John Royle who's made his mark as a comicbook artist in both the UK and USA (he's currently been drawing Robin for DC).

I've had the odd bits and pieces published over the years. Anyone got a copy of TV Zone Special # 13, will note a piece I did on 1970s US TV series 'Search'. They got my first name wrong, probably thought I was some dark-skinned West End performer! I'm tempted to give blood to obtain a copy of the first novelisation, 'Search' by Robert Weverka (publisher: Bantam 1972), if anyone has a copy to spare. Currently, I'm heavy researching for a book on UK Animation to be published by Titan Books next year, with John Gatehouse, amongst other things.

What do I really do for a living? That's classified. Seriously, it is. I signed the form. I did the job for 18 years before being made redundant 4 years ago. Apart from writing and drawing, I'm also a dab hand with computers, being able to program them, instinctive use of software and CAD. I'm also an insulin junkie, having been diabetic for some 17 years now.

I got bounced off a car bonnet last November and currently recovering from a treble comminuted fracture of the upper humerus and rather crunched knee cartilages. The bone's healed itself but I currently have limited mobility because the tendons haven't sorted themselves out yet.

I have learnt a lot of new ways to express pain and would only recommend such injuries to masochists. Considering the number of other road injuries I saw in hospital and physio and how worse mine could have become, I think I came off rather lightly.

Personal tastes? Hah! Will knowing them make you better people or want to try them out? I doubt if they can be used to spot where my stories come from, although it's a cinch for the articles. Essentially, I know what I like and tend to read it. I try to ensure that I learn about at least one new factual subject a year. I have favourite authors but that doesn't stop me criticising when they do a poor book!

Favoured authors include but in no particular order: A.E. Van Vogt, C.J. Cherryh (but not her fantasy stuff), Cordwainer Smith, Frederick Pohl, C.M. Kornbluth, Octavia Butler, Anne McCaffrey, Robert Heinlein, Arthur Clarke, Issac Asimov, Frank Herbert and Larry Niven. The usual people we all read.

There are also a lot of stories I've read and liked but only for that specific story and would leave a list too long to make sense of. I'd hesitate over giving a list of favourite stories because to do so would neglect others I've also enjoyed.

An attraction of any story has to be whether you can be lost in its pages. If an author can have you accepting the reality created then it'll have me hooked, even if some of the ideas become preposterous.

I tend to be a bit of a reality specialist and if one takes my interest then read all the stories about them. I'm not going to list all of them as most of the authors above have done them. The only major one missing has to be Wildcards - an ensemble shared-universe - that has kept me amazed at how so many have stayed together so long.

My health tends to make me steer away from going to the cinema. A combination of the downside of hyperactivity and diabetes means left in a dark room, I happily go to sleep. Films I need to see, I watch on video. Choosing favourite films is easier than books, but will sound pretty much like the fare most have you seen.

I still rate Alien, Aliens, 2001, 2010, Predator (both of them), Terminator (both of them), Bladerunner and The Abyss, but then I rate a lot of other films, and not all SF, as well. TV wise, Babylon 5 is standing about Star Trek, simply because it has more heart and unpredictability. Any selectivity in my viewing choices is purely because I saw them the first time around. There is a slight passion for high-tech shows providing it's used consistently right.

What about SF's media future? Although I can appreciate the need for any production company to cash in with merchandising contracts, they shouldn't forget that a good product will always sell itself. There should be less pandering to survey statistics and more chances taken.

Many of the best films and TV series have happened out of the blue, so why try deliberately to make them that way and fail? Where SF books are concerned, it would be nice to see less epic book series on the shelves. It must be very off-putting for neo-SF readers when they see how many books they have to catch up on. It's especially annoying seeing SF bookspace being squeezed out by the multitude of Star Trek books that won't change a thing in the TV series or films.

Ambitions? Get the use of my arm back. Sell a fictional book. Find a regular job. Sell another book to show it wasn't a fluke the first time. Avoid traffic so I can see the final episode of Babylon 5. Just the usual stuff any SF fan has.

G.F.WILLMETTS