Harlen Campbell

"A writer of fiction has just one obligation -- to entertain the reader.
Only if he has done that superbly can he deal with his personal concerns in a story."

Here's the bio sheet booksellers get:

Harlen Campbell

A writer of science fiction, mystery, and suspense novels, Harlen Campbell lives simultaneously in Cave Creek, AZ, and Huntington Beach, CA. His interests lie in the nature of the individual's relationship to society and to the world, but he is willing to apologize if they show up in his writing. In fact, he believes that a writer's primary obligation is to entertain, and that he should only be allowed to fool around with ideas if his readers don't notice what he's up to.

His latest novel, PLENUM, is an epic road novel where the road stretches from a fallen time ship deep in the last ice age to a critical meeting of the Polar Council in 7296 AD. The travelers include a student kidnapped from New York three years before the towers fell, a soldier of the Lord's Own Infantry who died in Africa defending the one true faith from the heretical defenders of another one true faith, a couple of hundred years later, and the daughter of a Princess of Troy who spent her childhood watching Khufu build his pyramid before she was exiled to the New Stone Age. Naturally, they also include the obligatory Knight with tin legs, a Dragon Mother with an interesting family, and a desperate battle for the salvation of the universe.

Campbell's first novel, Monkey on a Chain, was released by Doubleday in 1993. The book was the first of a series built around the character of Rainbow Porter, who has been described as a "throwback to the outlaw/heroes of the old west." In fact, Porter was inspired by a combination of John D. Macdonald's Travis McGee and television's Paladin character, with more than a touch of the pirate thrown in. In addition to favorable reviews, Monkey was an alternate selection of the Book of the Month Club. It was also released as a trade paperback by Poisoned Pen Press of Scottsdale, AZ, and is available from the Poisoned Pen bookstore and website as well as Amazon.

He attended New Mexico State University and has BA's in English and Journalism and an MA in English Literature. Except for a brief stint as a journalist with the US Army and an even briefer one teaching college English, he never used his degrees professionally. Although he admits to no hobbies and energetically avoids most forms of exercise, Campbell enjoys an occasional solitary walk. In general, he prefers beaches to mountains, warmth to cold, indolence to industry.