Genre: Opinion/Argumentation

Well I was born in New York in 1954 , but grew up in Los Angeles . I now live in Santa Barbara , California . As you may have guessed , my real name is n't Christopher Pike . I am very guarded about my real name , as I prefer to keep my identity a secret . My pen name was taken from Star Trek as it was the name of the first captain of the Starship Enterprise and I am a huge fan of any kind of science fiction . Apart from science fiction I love reading books by Stephen King , Tolkien and Ray Bradbury -- Fahrenheit 451 is one of my favourite books , along with Lord of the Rings . My love of books started pretty early on . At school I was very shy and as a result I would often be found absorbed in a book . I see my writing as a way of prolonging my youth ! Before writing my career took off I had various jobs including a house painter , a computer programmer and a factory worker . I left university early to begin my career and starting off writing science fiction , which I loved -- but no one would publish it . I never really set out to write books for teenagers , it just seemed to happen that way . Being a teenager is a very intense time as you 've got so many things going on in your life and I think you feel everything so much more : anger , love , jealousy and loyalty . I have written books for adults but I prefer writing books for children . After hundreds of rejection letters my first books were finally published in 1984 . The first two were Slumber Party and Weekend . I ca n't tell you how excited I was to finally see my books in print and on the bookshelves of shops . I have to confess I still go into bookshops and arrange the displays of my books . Sometimes I will see a kid looking at my books and I will tell them I know Christopher Pike . I do n't think they would believe me if I said I was Christopher Pike .