Well, in addition to writing some computer software, I also write fiction! I usually write under the pen name of Alex Piper; as Alex, I have had a few short stories published... but nothing significantly long yet.

My stories are usually set in 'unique' settings, and often involve what I refer to as altertech. Altertech is technology that is unlike what we know today, and which works on differing principles. A subgenre of altertech is the setting known as steampunk, where you have technology that can produce results you might expect today, but which is based on technological methods developed in the 1800's. Jules Verne's stories are an excellent example of the steampunk genre. Other examples of altertech would be a world where technology was powered by odd mystic gems, or where human chi was used as a power source for technology.

Perhaps my primary one is something borrowing elements from both the old 1960's television series The Avengers, and from Sherlock Holmes. The setting is Holmes' era, but magic, not technology, is foremost in the world, and technology is in fact frowned upon by the Anglican church; magic is natural and therefore stems from God, while technology stems from man, and is therefore flawed. It is against that backdrop that two young agents of the Crown are forced into an uneasy alliance; a church-trained mage, and a young technologist. Opposing viewpoints and philosophies.. united in a single goal? I've written several short stories with the protagonists or set in that world, and I am working them together into several novels. The first one is Crown of Steam.

Unfortunately, that story is my primary one, and so I am loathe to place story fragments of it online. I will, however, place a fragment from one other story online soon to give an idea of my writing style. That will be the small prologue fragment from a story that one friend describes as "Star Wars, if Jules Verne wrote it." That story is called To Sail The Stars.