Dave Freer
Dave Freer is a South African-born, Australian-based science fiction author writing mostly humorous or alternate history novels. Biography. Freer was born and educated in South Africa. He grew up on the edge of a city next to a ~500-acre nature preserve of coastal bush. His father crewed on a commercial fishing boat on weekends. After a stint in boarding school, where he learned "Smoking, strong drink and pursuit of wild women", he was conscripted at the age of 17 into the South African Defence Force and sent to the Angolan border as a medic (his  last choice). "My choices were five years in jail, leave the country, or go in for a year. I'm a strong swimmer, but the Atlantic seemed too large..." The year stretched into two. Afterwards he married, went to university and became an ichthyologist, then worked as research officer for the Western Cape commercial shark fishery. To make ends meet, and alleviate writing "amazingly dull" papers on fishery matters, he moonlighted as a commercial diver for a mussel farm. He managed a fish farm for a time, but the farm was forced to close (through no fault of his own ) and he started to write. Six years and 74 rejections later, his first book ("The Forlorn") was published by Baen Books. Dave is an ardent rock-climber and has opened many routes near Morgan's Bay in the Eastern Cape (South Africa). He is also an accomplished chef, winetaster, and also enjoys fly-fishing and diving. For many years he lived near Mount West in the Kwa-Zulu Natal Midlands with his wife, Barbara, and two sons, Paddy and James. In early 2010 he and his wife emigrated to Flinders Island, in the Australian state of Tasmania. He and his  family are now naturalized Australians. Dave has his own forum at Baen's Bar, a website, and a blog about "the Freer Family's adventures and misadventures emigrating to Flinders Island". His literary agent in the United States is the OnyxHawk agency. Awards. His 2008 Novel, "Slow Train to Arcturus", won the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Novel in the Preditors & Editors Readers Poll 2008. Bibliography. Drowned World. This young adult steampunk is set in an alternate 1970s earth where one scientific discovery was never made leading to massive global warming. Fish Story series. Short stories. Heirs of Alexandria series . With Eric Flint and Mercedes Lackey). Set in an alternate "Venetian Empire" in which magic thrives. Note: a significant amount of text, and a couple of major characters in this work, are adapted from stories written by Lackey in the Merovingen Nights shared universe series. That series was started by C. J. Cherryh in her novel "Angel with the Sword". Karres series. Expands the characters and situations in the novel "The Witches of Karres" by James H. Schmitz (1966) into a series.