Jerry Oltion (pronounced
OL-tee-un) has been a gardener, stone mason, carpenter, oilfield worker,
forester, land surveyor, rock 'n' roll deejay, printer, proofreader, editor,
publisher, computer consultant, movie extra, corporate secretary, and garbage
truck driver. For the last 25 years he has also been a writer, with 15 novels
and over 100 stories published so far. Click here for a bibliography
list.
Jerry and his wife, Kathy, live in Eugene,
Oregon, with their cat, Stormy. They both write science fiction, and Kathy
also works in a medical laboratory. Their hobbies include electric guitar,
electric bass, gardening, and astronomy. Click here to look at some of their
astrophotos.
Jerry spent most of 2005 designing and building a new type of telescope called the Trackball. It was featured in the August, 2006 issue of Sky & Telescope magazine. Click the link above or click on the trackball in the photo to learn how it works and how to make one for yourself.
In September of 2006, someone ran into the back of Kathy's Volkswagen,
the car she has driven since 1975. (She's had it longer than she's had Jerry!)
The impact pushed her into the car in front of her, so all four fenders,
trunk, and hood were damaged, along with the bumpers and even some of the
engine parts. The insurance company totalled it, but Jerry & Kathy bought
it back and rebuilt it. Kathy is once again driving it to work, and watching
out for distracted drivers.
Jerry & Kathy named their kitten Stormy because of the lightning
bolt on her forehead and because she can be a force of nature when she wants
to be. She's really affectionate when she's in a mellow mood, and really
rambunctious when she's active. She is growing up fast, but she's still
as playful as ever.
PARADISE PASSED is Jerry's favorite
novel, the one he has spent the last two decades writing. He poured his
heart and soul into it, blending bizarre aliens, wacky religion, good intentions,
and bad luck into a coming of age story that will leave you thinking about
it long after you're done reading. It's got Jerry's patented sense of humor,
but this time that humor comes with an undercurrent of social tension that
will keep you on the edge of your chair until the very last page. And if
that's not enough enticement, it has a gorgeous cover by Hugo-winning artist
Frank Wu. It's in trade paperback and can be purchased directly from the
publisher, Wheatland Press.
ANYWHERE BUT HERE is a sequel to THE GETAWAY SPECIAL,
but it's really about the world we live in today. The dust jacket says it
best: "In a world dominated by America's heavy hand, an independent
scientist reveals the secret of fast, cheap interstellar travel, sparking
an exodus like none in history. When anyone with a few hundred dollars and
a little ingenuity can build his own spaceship, even American citizens can't
wait to get out from under the United States' domineering thumb. Trent and
Donna Stinson, of Rock Springs, Wyoming, seal up their pickup for vacuum
and go looking for a better life among the stars, but they soon learn that
you can't outrun your problems. America's belligerent foreign policy is
expanding just as fast as the world's refugees, threatening to destroy humanity's
last chance for peaceful coexistence. When their own government tries to
kill them for exercising the freedoms that people once took for granted,
Trent and Donna reluctantly admit that America must be stopped. But how
can patriotic citizens fight their own country? And how can they succeed
where the rest of the world has failed?"
ANYWHERE BUT HERE won the Endeavor Award for best novel written by a Northwest Author.
THE GETAWAY SPECIAL is pure escapist
fiction. It's about a card-carrying mad scientist (a member of the International
Network of Scientists Against Nuclear Extermination, or INSANE for short)
who invents a hyperdrive engine that will take people anywhere in the universe
they want to go, with parts they can buy at Radio Shack. Anything that will
hold air can become a spaceship, but people soon learn that space travel
is not for the faint of heart. And if the aliens have their way, it might
not be for anyone!
Jerry's latest collection of short stories,
TWENTY QUESTIONS, contains 20 of his previously published stories, some
from obscure magazines and anthologies that you probably didn't see the
first time around. There's a general introduction by the author, as well
as individual notes about each story. Plus there's an added bonus: a scholarly
article that finally answers once and for all the question, "What's
the difference between science fiction and fantasy?" The book is in
trade paperback form and can be purchased directly from the publisher, Wheatland Press.
Jerry's novella, "Abandon
in Place", won the Nebula Award for best novella of 1997. It's about
the ghost of the Apollo space program, and the astronauts who learn how
to harness it. The story is available in the Nebula Awards 1997 anthology,
edited by Connie Willis. People kept asking what happened to the main characters
after they got back to Earth, so Jerry wrote a novel about them and Tor
published it under the same title: ABANDON IN PLACE. Jerry wanted to call
it IF WISHES WERE ROCKETS, but he was overruled. The novel contains the
novella in its opening section, so you don't need to track that down if
you want to read the novel.
Thanks for visiting the Jerry Oltion Page. If you'd like to send email
to Jerry Oltion, use the address at the right. (Sorry you can't copy and
paste it; it's a graphic file to thwart spambots that search the internet
for addresses to send junk mail to.)