About the author Christopher Mahoney

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About the Author

I was born on March 11, 1976 in Pittsburgh, PA and moved to a small town outside Boston, MA when I was seven. I had a large yard there, and it was while I lived in that house I started imagining a spaceship hidden in a cavern under the lawn I mowed every other weekend. I'd put myself to sleep each night imagining where I'd go and what I'd do if I had access to a ship that could take me anywhere.

My passion for invention and innovation continued beyond that initial spark. When I moved to Chicago to attend Northwestern University, I became entralled with the early incarnations of the Internet. I founded one of the first online used textbook exchanges, drove it to profitabilty, and sold it in 1998. I also wrote articles for the local Mensa magazine, published a poem, and authored several editorials. My technology and writing interests began to merge.

In 2002, I sought a graduate business school focused on innovation. I chose Babson College's MBA program due to its top rankings over a decade for entrepreneurship and was fortunate to win the Price-Babson Fellowship. It was during this time I started writing The Incredible Origins of the Onyx Sun. I also launched Pariah Publishing - a publishing and marketing company dedicated to finding quality, new voices in fiction - and received hundreds of submissions for the writing contest the company sponsored.

However, it was only after graduation, when I moved to San Francisco and started working for Houghton Mifflin, that I realized what the Onyx Sun series could contribute to young readers. After interviewing hundreds of teachers and parents as part of my job, I noticed a growing crisis in math and science education in the United States. It was then that I realized the Onyx Sun could be a fun story for young readers as well as an inspiration to engage in subjects where the US lags the rest of the developed world.

After three years of writing, editing, and searching for an agent, I returned to my entreprenurial roots and self-published the first Onyx Sun book. I am currently expanding its original vision to include lesson plans that link technologies from the book to real-world math and science problems. The book also includes access to an integrated web site where kids can edit the entire text of the story. For the first time on the Internet, middle-graders and other readers will be able to create their own Onyx Sun stories, share these stories with friends/teachers/parents, and allow their social network to comment on their changes.

I live in San Francisco, where I continue my passion for technology, having worked for the popular virtual world Second Life and currently hanging my hat at Sony PlayStation ©. When I can, I add a chapter to Book Two of the Onyx Sun series, The Wicked Adversaries of the Onyx Sun. I have been interviewed by the New York Times and travel abroad frequently to work on the future of global virtual worlds.

Thanks for visiting. I hope you enjoy the book!

Kalamazoo!

Christopher Mahoney