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Category:Writers =Robert G. Ferrell=

Robert G. Ferrell (born 1957) is an American author of information technology/security articles, humor, fantasy, and science fiction.

Biography
Robert G. Ferrell was born in Houston, Texas in 1957. In 1960 his mother took him to live with her parents in the hamlet of Iowa Park, Texas, a few miles west of Wichita Falls, Texas in north-central Texas. In 1968 she married an U.S. Army NCO nearing retirement from military service. They moved to Huntsville, Alabama for his final assignment at Redstone Arsenal, then after retirement to Midland, Texas and finally in 1970 to Odessa, Texas, where Robert attended Bowie Junior High and Odessa High School. While in high school he was a finalist for the International Science and Engineering Fair in both 1975 and 1976 with Radio Astronomy projects. He graduated in 1976 and spent two years at Odessa College before moving to Pasadena, California and completing a year at Occidental College in Los Angeles, California. He returned to Odessa in 1979 after his stepfather fell ill, and graduated in May of 1980 from the University of Texas of the Permian Basin with a B.S. in Life Science. He did graduate work in Avian Bevhaioral Ecology and Systematics in the Wildlife & Fisheries Sciences Department at Texas A&M University from 1980-83. From 1984-86 he was a research technician in the Human Nutrition section of the Animal Science Department at A&M.

In 1986 Robert moved to Houston and spent one semester in a Biochemistry graduate program at the University of Houston. In 1987 he left Houston for San Antonio, then later that same year moved to Austin. In 1988 he was accepted to the University of Texas School of Medicine at San Antonio. That lasted only one year; in 1989 he wa where he held a variety of IT and security jobs in the semiconductor, biotech, and materials sciences industries until 1996. s back in Austin

In 1994 he met Adrienne Chlebowski and in 1996 moved back to San Antonio to be with her; they were married in May of 1997. In the summer of that year he accepted a position with the U.S. Geological Survey and they relocated to Herndon, Virginia. In 1998 Robert began working remotely for the Interior (National) Business Center and returned once more to San Antonio. In 1999 they bought a house on 44 acres northwest of San Antonio. In 2007 they sold that acreage in preparation for moving back to northern Virginia for a federal job that was cancelled at the last minute. They bought a home in San Antonio instead and he accepted a position as a special agent (information security) with the U.S. Dept. of Defense. In 2010 they bought a second home on 11 acres in rural Wilson County, Texas and relocated there. In August of 2014 Robert took early retirement from the Department of Defense to pursue writing full-time. He has been writing for publication since the late 1970s, garnering recognition for technical writing, fiction, poetry, and humor. He selected for the Fine Writers Online Showcase for Literary Excellence in 1999. In spring of 2000 he became member #111 of the online humor columnists’ group known as The Netwits and served as the videographer for their first (and only) convention in Austin in October of that year. He is also a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, the Robert Benchley Society, and the American Radio Relay League. He was a finalist for the Robert Benchley Society Humor Writing Award in 2011 and a semifinalist in 2012. Robert has been published in three humor anthologies: My Funny Valentine, My Funny Major Medical, and Open Doors: Fractured Fairy Tales. He was also a finalist for the 2012 Atlanta Review Poetry Competition, and his non-fiction narrative piece, 404, was a finalist in the 2013 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition. His short story Mousetrap was published online by Bad Dream Entertainment in 2013 and will be included in an upcoming print anthology. He has written the /dev/random column for ;login: magazine since 2006. He is the author of three novels: Tangent (2004), Goblinopolis (2013), and Gathering of the Titans (2015) and a humor collection, Ex Mentis Saxonicum (2012). His ‘hacker fiction’ series Chasing the Wind (2000-2002) for Security Focus was translated into both Hebrew and Portuguese by fans.

Other Interests
Robert has an array of interests other than writing. He has been an active member of the Society for Creative Anachronism since 1982 and served in offices at every level of that organization. As well as having served in just about every IT position known to mankind over a span of 30+ years, with a special fondness for UNIX and Linux systems administration, he is an Amateur Extra class amateur radio operator (KF5SAR) and a founding member of the Wilson County Amateur Radio Club (W5WCR). He is also an ardent ornithologist and naturalist.

Robert has been a percussionist almost since birth. He began formal training in 1970, and was selected for the UIL All-State Band in Texas in 1976. He has played in a wide variety of musical organizations over the past half century, including a regional symphony orchestra, a touring dance band, Dixieland, jazz, folk, Celtic, and several early music groups. He is also a songwriter and a competent bass guitarist. He understands the basics of singing but does not recommend being in the audience when such transpires. He owns a small recording studio and has served as recording, mixing, and mastering engineer for a number of recordings and artists, including a well-known regional poet. He produces his own audio books there, as well.

He has been a calligrapher and illuminator of manuscripts for over three decades, and has even completed a commission for a Nobel Laureate. He also binds books and teaches medieval bookbinding workshops. He has created a number of icons, reliquaries, and other religious objets d’art over the years, as well. He made money in college and graduate school painting portraits and wildlife scenes in oils, watercolors, and acrylics. He has also dabbled in sculpture, furniture making, masonry, and building straw bale structures. He built a two-room straw bale chapel, complete with bell tower and bell, for his wife on the occasion of their fifth anniversary in 2002.

Academic publications

 * Ferrell, Robert and Luis F. Baptista, 1982. Diurnal Rhythms in the Vocalizations of Budgerigars. Condor 84: 123-124.
 * Lupton, J. and Robert Ferrell, 1986. Using Density Rather than Mass to Express the Concentration of Gastrointestinal Tract Constituents. J. Nutr. 116: 1 164-168.

Technical articles

 * May, 2000 (Security Focus): “Calling the CyberCops: Law Enforcement and Incident Handling” (Information Security Feature Article)
 * June, 2000 (Security Focus): “Have Root, Will Hack: 80 Agonizing Hours in the Life of an Information Systems Security Officer” (Information Security Feature Article)
 * September, 2000 (securityfocus.com): Chasing the Wind, Episode 1: “No Place to Hide”
 * October, 2000 (securityfocus.com): Chasing the Wind, Episode 2: “Raising the Stakes”
 * December, 2000 (securityfocus.com): Chasing the Wind, Episode 3: “From Out of the Blue”
 * January, 2001 (securityfocus.com): Chasing the Wind, Episode 4: “Through a Glass, Darkly”
 * March 2001 (Information Security Magazine): “When You Wish Upon a Czar . . .” 	(Information Security Feature Article)
 * April, 2001 (securityfocus.com): Chasing the Wind, Episode 5: “The Devil in the Details”
 * May, 2001 (securityfocus.com): Chasing the Wind, Episode 6: “The Gathering Storm”
 * June, 2001 (securityfocus.com): Chasing the Wind, Episode 7: “An Ill Wind”
 * July, 2001 (securityfocus.com): Chasing the Wind, Episode 8: “Still Waters”
 * August, 2001 (securityfocus.com): Chasing the Wind, Episode 9: “Smoke and Mirrors”
 * September, 2001 (securityfocus.com): Chasing the Wind, Episode 10: “The Road Less Traveled”
 * October, 2001 (securityfocus.com): Chasing the Wind, Episode 11: “Fire and Brimstone”
 * November, 2001 (securityfocus.com): Chasing the Wind, Episode 12: “The Serpent's Tooth”
 * December, 2001 (securityfocus.com): Chasing the Wind, Episode 13: “Cabbages and Kings”
 * January, 2002 (securityfocus.com): Chasing the Wind, Episode 14: “A Bird in the Hand”
 * February, 2002 (securityfocus.com): Chasing the Wind, Episode 15: “End Game”
 * May, 2002: “Cyberterrorism: Facts, Myths, and Possibilities.” Proceedings of DallasCon Cyberterrorism Summit, 2002
 * June, 2002 (Information Security Magazine): “Security on a Shoestring” (Information Security Feature Article)
 * June, 2002 (Information Security Magazine): “In Defense of Freeware” (Information Technology Feature Article)
 * March, 2005 (InfoWorld): “How to Hire an IT Security Consultant” (Information Security Feature Article)

Humor

 * December 1989 - present (Various organizational newsletters; collected at www.cynric.net): Ex Tempore (humor column)
 * April, 2006 - present (USENIX Association): “/dev/random,” technology humor column, ;Login: magazine.
 * 2011: Contributor to Bäuu Press Anthology My Funny Valentine, “Husbandology”
 * 2012: Contributor to Bäuu Press Anthology My Funny Major Medical, “Cut Here to Open”
 * 2012: Contributor to Wayman Publishing Anthology Open Doors: Fractured Fairy Tales, “Prince of Fools”
 * March, 2013: (BookBaby) Ex Mentis Saxonicum (Humor collection)

Novels

 * September, 2004 (Potomac View Press): Tangent (Science fiction novel)
 * August, 2013: (Zetabella Publishing) Goblinopolis (Humorous fantasy novel, Tol 	Chronicles book I)
 * May, 2015: (Zetabella Publishing) Gathering of the Titans (Humorous fantasy novel, Tol 	Chronicles book II)

Short stories

 * November, 2013: (Bad Dream Entertainment) “Mousetrap” (Science fiction)

Novels completed but unpublished (as of late 2015)

 * The King is Dead (comic stage play)
 * Infinite Loop (science fiction novel, sequel to Tangent)
 * Angel of Order (fantasy novel)
 * Skyvers (science fiction novel)

In progress (as of late 2015)

 * Decades (autobiographical non-fiction)
 * The Angry Saxon Chronicles (humorous historical fiction)

A smattering of Robert’s additional writings are also available on Scribd.