Whaler, Jacob

As a teenager, I read Ray Bradbury's horror stories into the dark hours of the night, afraid to move for fear that I'd stir up something evil. I consumed Alan Dean Foster's Alien in one sitting, glued to the La-Z-Boy recliner in our family room, heart beating in unison with the characters on the page as they pursued, and were pursued by, the nightmare aboard their starship. I sat in a secret corner of our house with tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat as I savored the end of The Lord of the Rings. My belief in the power of words to fire our imaginations and lift our minds to new heights p...