Robert Clifton Storey Jr

Born in Detroit in the late fifties, I lived on its Eastside. While growing up in the Motor City, I loved to play games that relied on my imagination. I really enjoyed pretending to be a cowboy when I was very young. Westerns were big in those days, and I watched a lot of popular ones like the Lone Ranger, Cheyenne, and Zorro. As I got a little older, I developed a fascination for everything space which bordered on obsession. The space race with the old Soviet Union was in full swing. My imagination was often inspired by such TV shows as Lost in Space, Star Trek, etc. which helped to fuel my budding creativity.

In high school, I found that I loved to write. I kept a notebook where I would experiment with small stories, a kind of doodling with words. Writing was a way to free my imagination and let it run wild. I thought books were the greatest invention ever made, and I still do. The first book that deeply affected me was Flowers for Algernon. Later, I read the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy both of which started my love affair with the fantasy genre.

At twenty, I joined the navy; with the idea of setting out on a grand adventure traveling the world. Stationed in the northeastern part of Washington State, I found the surrounding landscape, where the Cascade Mountains touched the waters of Puget Sound, to be almost mythical. That half of Washington State reminded me a bit of the fantastical lands one would find in a fantasy novel. It was an inspiring place for sure.

My naval unit was sent several times on deployments aboard two different, gigantic aircraft carriers. My voyages aboard those ships took me to such wondrous places as the Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, and Hong Kong. An incredible personal adventure. I read constantly during my precious free time (mostly fantasy) and would write every night for hours as that mammoth ship rocked gently in the middle of the ocean. At the time, I was working on a book that could be considered a prequel to “Flight of the Vessel”.