Who is this Michael Jasper guy, anyway?

Okay, let's try to keep this short and snappy -- I grew up in the small town of Dyersville, Iowa, home of "The Field of Dreams." In the past I've tried bartending, teaching junior high, painting houses, being a secret shopper, working construction, and many more jobs; I prefer fiction writing. For my day job, I work as a technical writer.

I've been writing fiction since about 1995, when I moved out to North Carolina and attended N.C. State University, but I really started taking it seriously in 2000, when I went to the Writers of the Future workshop for my story "Mud and Salt." I've not looked back since (to which my sore arms and wrists will attest).

I'm a graduate of the 1996 Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer's Workshop (back when it was at Michigan State) and a 1997 graduate of the North Carolina State Master's Program in Creative Writing. I live with my wife Elizabeth and our two amazing sons in North Carolina.

For semi-regular updates, see my Journal (or check out my LiveJournal, which has more or less the same stuff for your LJers) as well as my FaceBook page.