Young Rissa

F. M. Busby and his wife, Elinor, lived in Seattle with their two cats-Jeoffrey, the young black and white panther, and Molly Dodd, veteran calico-until his death on February 17, 2005, at age eighty-three. Buz's eighteen published novels include eight in the universe of Rissa Kerguelen, three in that of Cage a Man, and another three in the Slow Freight grouping. Solo books are All These Earths, The Breeds of Man, The Singularity Project, and Islands of Tomorrow. Of more than forty shorter works, three have appeared in best-of-year anthologies; twenty are gathered into his collection Getting Home.

Growing up in the "Palouse country" of eastern Washington, Buz attended and graduated from WSU, studying physics and electrical engineering, which helped him keep his numbers straight. What with two vacations financed by the army, the graduating part took nine years, after which he moved to Seattle to engineer communications for the Alaska Comm System, get married, and settle down.

When the ACS was sold in 1970, Busby opted for early retirement and began writing science fiction. In the army and later, he spent considerable time in Alaska, including a year in the Aleutians, and swore his tales of Amchitka weather were simple truth. His interests included aerospace,unusual gadgetry of most any kind, dogs, cats, and people, not necessarily in that order. His website is www.fmbusby.com.