I sup­pose it’s fit­ting that one of my lit­er­ary idols, the late Ray Brad­bury, was born in the month of August in Waukegan, Illi­nois. Because 53 years later, so was I. Not that I have ever dared to hold myself in his lit­er­ary com­pany, but it has always been my belief that light­ning can strike twice.

Though born in the Mid­west, I was trans­ported to New Jer­sey when I was barely a year old and raised there on a healthy diet of sci-fi/horror movies, comic books, and role-playing games. I was also very much into my com­puter, and at the age of 14 cre­ated my first node on the Inter­net when I ran a BBS on my Com­modore 64 with a 300 baud modem. Through­out high school I sub­sisted mostly on a steady diet of Stephen King and Michael Crich­ton. But a few years later, while study­ing Engi­neer­ing in col­lege, I dis­cov­ered Jack Ker­ouac, and it was his writ­ing that would define my life over the next twenty years.

After chang­ing majors sev­eral times, I even­tu­ally earned a Bach­e­lor of Arts in Eng­lish from the Uni­ver­sity of Miami, and a Mas­ter of Arts in Phi­los­o­phy from New York Uni­ver­sity. In the time since, I have stress-tested infra­struc­ture for the national elec­tion data cen­ter, taught Eng­lish in Japan, man­aged email servers in Port­land, Ore­gon, and built exhi­bi­tion booths in Mel­bourne, Australia.

DATA RUNNER is my first book. The first six chapters are available immediately right here on Wattpad, and starting November 1st I'll be serializing one chapter a week through the end of the year, so be sure to check back every Friday for the next part! You can also pick up the ebook at any time by following the link below to choose your favorite online retailer (Amazon, BN, iBookstore, etc.).

http://samapatel.com/buy-data-runner-now/