M.L. VanBlaricum, better known as Mike, Daddy, Pops, Grandpa, and Duckman, unless he is in trouble and he is then invariably called Michael, lives in Santa Barbara, California, and Urbana, Illinois, with his wife, Pam. He was educated in public schools in Momence and Princeton, Illinois, and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he received three degrees in Electrical Engineering. He has been an earthworm and a Kool-Aid salesman, a paperboy, a lawn mower, a lifeguard, a deliveryman, a musician, a steel worker, a house painter, an appliance repairman, a Boy Scout, a ballet dancer, a lead smelter, a printer's assistant, a Girl Scout leader, a collector of books, a rare book dealer, a columnist, a dramaturg, an author, a lecturer, a research engineer, an inventor, a CEO, and, maybe once, a spy.