the fantastical novels of Sam Siciliano

Early on, Sam Siciliano developed a taste for fantastical worlds better than the one he was stuck with. He grew up reading the golden-age juvenile science fiction of Heinlein and Andre Norton, the Mars and Tarzan novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Baum's Oz books and Brooks' tales set on a New England farm where Freddy the Pig had his adventures.  And of course, last but not least was the London of Sherlock Holmes.  Siciliano has a Ph.D. in English from the University of Iowa and did some college teaching, but because of the terrible academic job market, he worked many years in business as a database administrator. His reading tastes remain diverse, with a special fondness for genre fiction. Jane Austen may be his all time favorite author, the Victorian writers and Raymond Chandler his inspiration, but he is also a big fan of Tim Powers and Alastair Reynolds.

Siciliano was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah.  After undergraduate work at the University of Utah, he went on to the University of Iowa in Iowa City.  There he met and married fellow English graduate student Mary Slowik.  The two defended their dissertations, the last step in their doctorates, on the same memorable day.  They have raised three children and several cats together.  They attribute their long and happy marriage to the fact that neither of them believes in ironing.