When I'm at work, people are often surprised to learn that I've written a novel. When I'm at writing events, people are often surprised to learn where I work. Computers and novels. Isn't that a bit of a weird combination?
But one of the things that drew me to sci-fi as a genre, both for reading and writing, is the idea of wondering "what if." What if we could teleport around the planet? What if we could travel in more than three dimensions? What if computers could think? In the books I read and the stories I write, I like to explore what might happen to people if we were able to do more with the technology around us. So I think it makes perfect sense that I work for a company that's purpose is imagining "what if" and then trying to make it a reality (so long as it doesn't result in robots enslaving the planet).
Besides, being a little bit weird never hurt anyone.
My view is that life's too short to be bored. I've always kept busy and tried new things, whether it's learning to juggle, presenting on a radio show, helping edit a magazine, doing embroidery or studying kung fu. I've lost track of the number of hobbies I've started over the years but the one that's been constant has been writing. I've written short stories. I've written some fairly bad poetry. And I've written longer stories. Sometimes the short stories ended up as the longer stories when plot twists crept in and new characters came out of nowhere and insisted on taking part.
So I spend my work days helping people explore the possibilities of how modern technology could help their business. And then I go home and spend my free time exploring the possibilities of how potential technology could help or destroy their lives.
Now I'm just waiting for someone to invent the machine that lets the stories come out of my head onto my computer without me having to do the hard work of writing the things!