Born in Philadelphia in 1947, Stephen Goldin is a Nebula Award finalist science fiction and fantasy author who’s lived in California since 1960. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Astronomy from UCLA and worked as a civilian space scientist for the U.S. Navy for a few years after leaving college, but has made his living as a writer/editor most of his life. He’s published more than 40 books, and lots of articles and stories.

His first wife was fellow author Kathleen Sky, with whom he co-wrote the first edition of the highly acclaimed nonfiction book, THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WRITER. His current wife is fellow author Mary Mason. So far, they have co-authored two books in the beloved “Rehumanization of Jade Darcy” science fiction series about a female space mercenary who, when she doesn’t have a convenient war to fight, works as a bouncer at an interspecies bar and grill.

His four-volume epic fantasy, the Parsina Saga, came about because he was bored with fantasies that all seemed to be either based on European mythology or else involved barbarian heroes. Instead he conceived an Arabian Nights-style adventure out of the dreams of his childhood and exciting movies like Ray Harryhausen’s “7th Voyage of Sinbad.” Genies in bottles and flying carpets are only some of the wonders that await the intrepid reader of SHRINE OF THE DESERT MAGE and the ensuing volumes.

In the mid-1970s he took E.E.”Doc” Smith’s novella “Imperial Stars” and expanded it to novel length, then wrote nine more original novels of his own to form the classic Family d’Alembert series. In the early 21st century though, unhappy with the way those first versions had become outdated, he wrote an entirely new first novel, TSAR WARS, with an entirely new universe and characters and then rewrote all the remaining novels to comply with it. The result was the completely re-envisioned Agents of ISIS series. While purists may insist on the original books, modern space opera readers have said they prefer the newer series for its better writing, deeper background, more believable (well, slightly) characters, and up-to-date technology. The books of the Agents of ISIS series are also considerably less expensive in ebook format than those of the original series.

Mr. Goldin served the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America as editor of the SFWA Bulletin and as the organization’s Western Regional Director. An atheist, he has lived with cats all his adult life. Artistically, he enjoys Broadway musicals and surrealist art.