Doug Sharp

wat_sharp_doug_06142011
Excerpt: 
"PUNCH IT!" I shout.A burst of lead jackhammers into the cockpit roof. A slug rips a screeching groove in the thick windshield.BOOMGROWL! The Energia's thrusters roar to life. Acceleration jams the seat hard into my spine.“Whee doggies!” I whoop. Back into the wild black yonder.Space shuttle Enterprise scrams on treadmarks of smoke up, up, up into the grey Kazakh sky.--from Channel Zilch
Bio: 
I am an ornamental hermit living in a remote lakeshore cabin in deepest Wisconsin with two horrible dogs.While I was a fifth grade teacher in the late 70s, I taught myself programming with Apple IIs. I wrote two hit games in the mid-1980s: ChipWits ­(named eighth-best game ever written for Apple or Macin­tosh by Maclife) and Ci­nemaware's King of Chicago. I incarnated as the Demo God for Microsoft Research's Virtual Worlds Group in the mid-1990s.I’ve fought back from a disabling epilepsy/pain condition to attend Clarion West Writers Workshop (2002) and to finish my novels Channel Zilch and Hel’s Bet. I am just starting to write Castle Rising--a medieval-kids-vs.-alien-armada MG novel.
Publications: 
My short story "The Flying Squids of Zondor" appears in Panverse Publi­shing's anthology Eight Against Reality.
Writing Description: 
My short stories tend to squirt out onto the page and startle bystanders. My novel Channel Zilch is a fast-paced adventure with fun characters doing cool stuff, plenty of plot, twisted tech, and well-researched astronautics.
Writing Goals: 
I am just starting to write Castle Rising so my goals are to:Write the first 7,500 wordsOutline the storyRead more 12th-century historyDevelop the four main characters--autistic apprentice scribe from England, prince from the castle of Great Zimbabwe, martial artist from Angkor Wat, and hunter from Mesa Verde
Website: 
www.channelzilch.com