Michael McCollum was a successful engineer for 45 years with Honeywell,where he was Chief Engineer in the valve product line. He also worked on the precursor to the Space Shuttle Main Engine, a nuclear valve to replace the one that failed at Three Mile Island, several guided missiles, the Space Station, and virtually every aircraft in production today. In addition to his engineering, Mr. McCollum is a successful professional writer in the field of science fiction. He is the author of a dozen pieces of short fiction and has appeared in magazines such as Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, Amazing, and Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. His novel, Thunderstrike!, was optioned by a Hollywood production company for a possible movie. Several of his books have subsequently been translated into Japanese, German, Russian, and English (as opposed to American).