The League of Scientists, written by Andy Kaiser

Hi everyone, I’m Andy Kaiser, the author of the League of Scientists book series. I’m a techie and a writer. You might call that a “technical writer”, but please don’t. Technical writing is a horrible thing, filled with mind-freezing repetition and no imagination. Let’s move away from that dry, creaky world, and travel in a completely different direction. Two different directions, actually, because that’s where my life is. In one direction we have computers, technology and general geekery. In another direction we have writing.

I’ve always liked writing, but, strangely, I didn’t always know it. Probably because I have a lot of other hobbies competing for attention. I’ve had various writing projects since I was pretty young. The first one I remember is “the notebook”, a thin, blue, tattered, sixty-page notebook I used to keep under my bed. I wrote in it whenever the mood struck me. It ended up as a collection of all the weird things that went through my brain. Deep, meaningful stuff, like:

“If you fall down an up escalator, will you fall forever?”

That’s a puzzler, all right.

Growing up, I gravitated towards gadgets and technology. I loved video games. I was one of the geeks in computer class, always ready to help you finish that programming assignment. I studied software design at college, but realized my dream job of making video games would never come to be. I found out I didn’t really enjoy the programming process.

You may think I’m organized when you first meet me, but I’m not. I just fake it well. My wife calls me “a disorganized, logical person”. My brain pretends to think nice, neat and tidy, but really, it’s pretty messed up in there. It’s like my writing room at home: I usually know where everything is, but anyone walking into the room will run out screaming from the various collections of what they’d call “towering piles of junk”.

That’s the way my mind works. There’s a lot of junk in there, and while I’ve put all my thoughts – my mental piles and collections – into some kind of order, it’s still not very tidy. That’s why I’m not a programmer, because I don’t enjoy writing language in the way that a program needs to see it.

So, I write. I write when I’m not working at my day job, when I’m not with my family and when I’m not staying up too late reading. Some of my writing is about technology, some isn’t. Some is fiction, some isn’t. Some might call that being well-rounded. I think it means I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.

This brings us to The League of Scientists. That’s why, I assume, you’re here, and have made it this far: I thank you for making the effort.

The League of Scientists is a group of smart kids with heavy interests and talents in science. They use their abilities to solve various seemingly-supernatural mysteries. Solutions to the mysteries always involve the application of science or critical thinking.

“The League of Scientists” focuses on the following themes:

1) Being smart and being interested in science are very good things. (Oddly, some people think just the opposite.)

2) It shows real-world science applications, answering the favorite question of students everywhere, “When is this stuff ever useful?!” (I’ve asked that one myself.)

3) When unraveling mysteries and learning about the world, critical thinking and the scientific method are essential.

4) Read an enjoyable story with interesting characters – even if you’re not a science geek, you can still appreciate a good mystery!

For a list of everything else I do online, check out: http://www.andykaiser.com

Thanks for reading this and for checking out The League of Scientists. I know authors are supposed to say, “I hope you have as much fun reading as I had in writing.” Having now written a couple of books, I do not understand that statement. Writing a book is hard, people. Yes, it’s fun (now and then), it’s rewarding (though I don’t mean financially), but there’s real brain sweat involved. It’s not like I’m sitting there, typing and singing, “Shiny Happy People”.

Let me morph the generic author’s note into something more accurate for me: Thank you. If you appreciate my brain sweat, then I’m happy I made the effort.