Home		 About Joan

photo of me at the 2009 AGMMy journey to becoming an author is unusual, for since I can remember, I always wanted to be an engineer, which I did realize. But unlike Scotty of Star Trek fame, my recreational reading not only consisted of technical manuals, but ran the gamut from science fiction to historical fiction, from texts on art to biographies. Until I read Sharon Kay Penman’s The Sunne in Splendor and then Paul Murray Kendall’s Richard the Third my mental image of this English king, was of the monster Tudor invented and Shakespeare presented. Not only did these books change my thinking about the last Yorkist Monarch, but I was so taken by his story that this dyed-in-the-wool technogeek felt compelled to write about Richard III.

I was born in Brooklyn, New York, and then at ten years of age moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut, graduated high school and continued onto the University of Bridgeport where I received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. My career started with designing, testing, and troubleshooting hardware. Then I found computers and software. It was love at first debug. I progressed from design and development of operating systems and interactive online applications to network design and application support.

Before I started on my novel, I dabbled in the world of fan fiction, writing stories for my pleasure about characters from my favorite science fiction show, Farscape. Then I discovered Richard III, and the rest, as they say, is history.

To make the transition to write about a well-known Medieval English King, I joined an online writing community, Critique Circle, and became a member of The Richard III Society, American Branch. I owe much to these two groups for their encouragement and technical help.

Richard’s story hasn’t ended with this first book; its sequel, Loyalty Binds Me. is being revised, and the third book, Strange Times is still in development..

I’d love to hear from you regarding This Time, my web site, and Richard III. Send an email to: jszechtman(at)gmail.com (copy and paste into the to line and replace the (at) with an @). For more discussion about Richard III and other thoughts that stray through my neurons, visit my blog: Random Thoughts of an Accidental Author.

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