Full Name: Gregory John van Eekhout

What kind of name is van Eekhout? It's Dutch.

You don't look Dutch (usually said with a suspicious squint, as if I'm trying to pull a fast one). My parents are Indo. Dutch-Indonesian. It's a colonial thing.

How do you pronounce van Eekhout? Emphasis on the EEK. The HOUT part rhymes with OUT, as in, "Hey, I'm going OUT for some guacamole." I don't get angry when it's mispronounced. I mispronounce a lot of things. I like guacamole.

What does it mean? Roughly translated from Dutch, it means "of oakwood." Or, possibly, "of squirrelwood." I prefer the former.

So what do you look like? Like this.

Geography: Born and raised in Venice and Culver City, CA. Spent much time in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona. Now living in San Diego, CA.

What does it feel like to get stung by a scorpion? It hurts. It makes you respect scorpions but not like them much.

Occupation: Science fiction/fantasy/horror writer. See Publications. I'm also a sometime instructional designer and every-now-and-again college English instructor. See my rather out-of-date resume.

Marital Status: Perpetually engaged to wed astrophysicist, Dr. Lisa M. Will.

What's your take on pizza? There's no such thing as bad pizza. There's great pizza, good pizza, and just pizza. But no bad pizza. If you've had bad pizza, you didn't eat it right or you're just plain wrong-headed.

What's your theory of leaf blowers? They represent everything that's wrong in the universe. They make noise, spew pollution, and rather than solving problems (i.e., piles of leaves) they just transfer them from one location to another. Evil.