I was born in 1954 and lived with my parents in Berala, a suburb in western Sydney. I attended Birrong Boys High School and then went on to the University of Sydney from where I obtained a first class honours degree in Electrical Engineering in 1978, picking up a Bachelor of Science on the way through in 1976. After spending a year working for the Overseas Telecommunications Commission, I returned to the university to undertake five years of postgraduate research, obtaining my PhD in 1985. After a year working at Mondel and Associates Pty Ltd, I returned again to the University of Sydney as a lecturer in Electrical Engineering. Four years later I moved to Tamworth in north-western NSW where I worked for Carillon Development Ltd as the Design Engineer for the Carillon Radio Group.

In 1995 Carillon sold all their radio interests and I moved back to the coast, joining Innes Corporation Pty Ltd as Senior Development Engineer.

In spite of my advancing years, the little boy inside me is still alive and well. I get greatest pleasure from the simple things in life, like going barefoot everywhere, walking through the bush listening to the birds and taking in nature's beauty, or body-surfing at the local beaches. I hate dressing up - in summer I prefer wearing just board shorts wherever this is socially acceptable, and in winter I add a tee shirt or a pullover if it's really cold.

Since 1995 I've lived at Umina Beach, a suburb of Gosford on the central coast of New South Wales, Australia, about 40km north of Sydney. This region between Sydney and Newcastle is renowned for its spectacular beaches, lakes, sandstone escarpments and extensive eucalypt forests. My home is close to the beach and the beautiful Brisbane Water National Park. The climate is cool to mild in winter and warm to hot and humid in summer.

I'm the Senior Development Engineer at Innes Corporation Pty Ltd and based in Hornsby, a northern suburb of Sydney. I design the electronics and write the software for our range of broadcasting products, including the Flashlog hard disk audio logger, the Delay Master time zone audio delay, the Auricon professional PCI audio I/O cards and the Radcap range of AM, FM and DAB+ multi-station radio capture cards. I've had lots of experience with Protel (now Altium) schematic capture, PCB layout and FPGA design tools, DSP programming, Windows device driver writing (particularly audio WDM drivers), Windows application development and VHDL FPGA coding.

If you ever see me, chances are I'll be barefoot. I was born that way and as a child was always happiest when my feet were free. Being barefoot is a way of life for me - the feeling of lightness and freedom is as strong now as it was the first time I plucked up the courage to leave home unshod. I'm a proud member of the Society for Barefoot Living where fellow barefooters around the world share their experiences via the Internet.

Being barefoot is healthy (most chronic foot disorders in western society are caused by shoes), it offers a much greater intimacy with the environment, it prevents static electricity from building up, and besides it's fun.

My writings...

One rainy weekend when I was living in Tamworth I got bored and thought it might be fun to try writing a short science fiction story with some habitually barefoot characters in it. The end result was Barefoot to the Stars, a story about a group of university students who uncover the key to faster-than-light space travel.

Having caught the bug, I then decided to try a longer, more complex tale. Barefoot Times begins when 14-year-old Peter Thorpe moves to a country town and meets an Aboriginal boy who shares his love for astronomy, barefooting, and a destiny that reshapes time itself. This story ultimately became the first part of a much larger tale, growing into ten parts spanning sixty years and three generations in the lives of the characters. It's now been published in trade paperback and ebook format by Zeus Publications.

With one published book under my belt, everyone kept asking me if there was a second one in the wind. My initial reaction was no way, but the seed was sown and in May 2005 I started writing again. Five months and 112,000 words later, Call of the Delphinidae was finished, and is now also available from Zeus Publications. It's set in the same universe as Barefoot Times and tells the story of Aaron's parents: Mary, a Delphinidae priestess from the planet Bluehaven and Bobby, a computer technician from Narrabri on Earth.

The third book in the series, The Mind of the Dolphins, is set three years after the conclusion of both Barefoot Times and Call of the Delphinidae. This has also been taken up by Zeus Publications and was released in 2008.

The fourth novel, called Cry of the Bunyips, is set two years further on and has just been released by Zeus Publications. There's also a blog for this book at http://cryofthebunyips.wordpress.com.

• Bushwalking - When living in Tamworth, I was a member of the Tamworth Bushwalking and Canoe Club and participated in many enjoyable walks in northern inland New South Wales. Since moving to the Central Coast in 1995 I've done many walks through the Brisbane Water and Bouddi National Parks, as well as participating in the annual NavShield Wilderness Rescue rogaine. Where possible I prefer to walk barefoot.
• Body surfing - I enjoy riding the waves at the local beaches in Umina.
• Amateur radio - I obtained my full licence (VK2BYY) while still in high school and have been involved in amateur radio to some degree ever since. In the 1980s I served on the Council of the Wireless Institute of Australia (NSW Division), including one term as President, and also built the microprocessor-controlled broadcast consoles and VHF/UHF repeater systems at the Division's Dural station. These days I'm not very active but still enjoy the radio direction-finding contests at the various field days run in NSW.
• Reading - As a daily rail commuter I usually have a book with me to keep me occupied while travelling to and from work. My preferred genre is Science Fiction and Fantasy, but not exclusively so. My favourite authors are Peter Straub, Stephen King, Anne Rice, Raymond Feist and J.K.Rowling, with many others featuring on my bookshelves.

Other books by barefooters…

• A Parallel Path by Marco Peel (http://sites.google.com/site/aparallelpath).
  After being drugged and raped in Paris, 17-year-old Nastasha finds herself embarking on a 1500km barefoot walk along the old pilgrim’s path from Arles to Santiago de Compostela, only to find herself following in the footsteps of 13-year-old Dominic who'd been fleeing the plague and oppression in 1348.
• City on Clouds by Marco Peel (https://sites.google.com/site/cityonclouds/).
  When Alisha chose to write her thesis on the Children’s Crusade, it was just an adventure on paper. She never expected to become part of something similar. Stuck on a blank page, she tries her luck with a clean slate, only to get more than she bargained for. Two stories instead of one. With all the dark magical realism of a medieval tale. Only, one of them isn’t medieval.
• The Cirillian Flame - Book 1 of the Weavers and Wyrders series by Mark Davies (www.weaverswyrders.co.za).
  Jenna and her brother Hahn, sole survivors of a genocide, take on Frethenia's corrupt establishment in this gripping supernatural fantasy.
• The Mystery of Ghost Lake by Timothy Mills (http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeukxgo/).
  A wheelchair-bound Cheyenne boy begins to discover his heritage as he and his friends try to unravel the secret behind a mysterious fog-bound lake.
• The Phantom Camper by Timothy Mills (http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeukxgo/).
  Joey Red Wolf is invited to participate in the Sun Dance ceremony, but an unwanted presence threatens to spoil everything for him.
• The Mystery of Hawk's Canyon by Timothy Mills (http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeukxgo/).
  Joey and his friends try to unravel the dark secrets lurking in a small canyon not far from Gray Horse.
• The Spirit Lodge Mystery by Timothy Mills (http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeukxgo/).
  Joey and his best friend AJ receive their calling to the Old Ways in the mysterious and frightening Cheyenne Spirit Lodge.
• The Barefoot Hiker by Richard Frazine (http://www.bhthom.org/hikertxt.htm).
  The definitive how-to guide for barefooters.
• The Barefoot Book by Daniel Howell (http://www.thebarefootbook.com).
  An informative guide to the benefits of barefoot living.