Author Bio:

Robert M. Kerns (or Rob if you ever meet him in person) is a geek, and he claims that label proudly. Most of his geekiness revolves around Information Technology (IT), having over fifteen years in the industry; within IT, he especially prefers Servers and Networks, and he often makes the claim that his residence has a better data infrastructure than some businesses.

Beyond IT, Rob enjoys Science Fiction and Fantasy of (almost) all stripes. He is a voracious reader, with his favorite books too numerous to list.

Rob has been writing for over 20 years. He published his first novel in 2018 and has no plans to stop any time soon.

Okay… that’s all well and good, but one presumes someone actually reading this page is interested in more than just the boilerplate bio in the back of all the books and on the various storefronts (i.e. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, et al).

More Detail Than You Probably Want

I started writing during the summer between my junior and senior years of high school. I started writing, because I didn’t like the ending of the DragonLance Legends trilogy, by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman.

Now, to be clear… there wasn’t anything wrong with the ending. It was appropriate to the story and the main character arc. It was well written. I simply didn’t like it.

I remember sitting on the edge of my bed, holding the book in my hands (because ebooks and ereaders weren’t a thing yet), and thinking that I could do better than what I’d just read.

I’ve been trying ever since.

Now, everyone needs to pay the bills while they’re chasing their dreams, and how I paid the bills for twenty years (give or take) was working in the field of Information Technology (IT). I specialized in Systems & Networks, because even by 2005, it was impossible to be a well-rounded generalist and qualify for anything above entry-level positions.

At various points during those years, I held industry certifications from Microsoft, Cisco, and CompTIA.

I loved the work… until I didn’t.

In May of 2018—just one month after publishing my first novel—my burnout in IT reached critical mass.

By that point, my parents were getting older, as well, so it seemed a perfect fit to move back home to help them while I focused on my stories.

I have taken the occasional IT gig since then. One of the most memorable was a trip to Sitka, Alaska, to install a firewall on a US Coast Guard Air Station. The firewall was to enable remote access to the new network-based HVAC controls and was separate from the primary Department of Defense network.

Overall, though, leaving IT was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, and I don’t regret it at all.

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