A self-described Sydney-based sentient pocketful of stardust, Rob prefers to celebrate the universe with his creativity, be it painting, sculpting, drawing, casting metal, writing, or pretty much anything else involving making stuff. He has deep passions for art, history, chocolate, beautiful things, peace, love, cats, chocolate, great literature and chocolate. Rob was born just in time for Woodstock but too young to get there and appreciate it, dammit. Rob is part-Scottish, part-German, mostly Australian, all mad and therefore an artist and writer with delusions of success. A voracious devourer of books from a young age, Rob started writing stories around age ten. Growing up more physically than mentally, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English before starting his own small business, writing in his spare time. Now in the thick end of his forties, ill health has forced retirement from professional life, leaving him to work on his art and writing, which he would dearly love to do for a living. He sells his art on Etsy and Bluethumb, and his writings on Amazon and Smashwords and Barnes & Noble and frankly anywhere else online. He has dreams of being one of those rare creatures who can make a living from what they create, chiefly because health reasons keep him largely housebound and away from digging ditches, marshalling supermarket trolleys, cleaning up litter or other stellar career choices. Until he sells anything, he starves a lot. Rob is scared of grasshoppers, door-knockers, spelling errors, horror movies, molten metal, fundamentalists and having to leave the house. Rob is not scared of spiders, snakes, things that go bump in the night, intelligent people or embarrassingly enormous wads of cash being handed to him.