Stirling Westrup became hooked on Science Fiction at the age of 9, when he was lent his brother’s copy of The Spacehounds of IPC, by E.E. “Doc” Smith. Skipping over the mushy stuff at the beginning, he quickly found the bit where the alien ships start firing ray-beams, and he’s never looked back. He determined then-and-there to become one of those adventuring scientists who build their own spaceships and ray guns and go out to confront the alien menace on its own turf. He maintained this determination until well into a physics major in university. However the realities of the current technology of warp drives and the lack of jobs for nuclear physicists caused him to shift to his second love: computers. For the last 30+ years since he left university, he’s been an internet denizen and working programmer engaged in everything from educational software to embedded communications systems. A few years ago he was Director of Research and Development for a small Montreal-based computer-game company called Strategy First, which he helped to found, but is now engaged with another startup. In his spare time he reads science fiction and fantasy, and dabbles in writing and running role-playing game supplements and scenarios.