M. (Mike) D. Taylor is a professor emeritus of mathematics. When his children asked about the word “emeritus,” he explained that it meant “embalmed.” He taught at the University of Central Florida for thirty-five years. (It is rumored that he is now in the Faculty Protection Program.)   He spends his retirement indulging his interests in mathematics and writing.

His science fiction and fantasy writing is mostly inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien and H. P. Lovecraft, an odd combination. His tastes in fiction were shaped by stories from the old pulp magazines of the 1930’s, 40’s, and 50’s, and he believes The Lord of the Rings is the greatest work of fiction the Twentieth Century produced. Nowadays he particularly enjoys such authors as Terry Pratchett and Lois McMaster Bujold.

His current hobby horse in mathematics is geometric algebra and geometric calculus (also known as Clifford analysis). This is a beautiful branch of mathematics that deserves to be much more widely known than it is. It finds applications in string theory, mathematical physics, computer graphics, and other areas. As M. D. learns more about this area, he is writing notes in hopes they will see the light of day as some sort of book. If you can stand to learn more, see the math page.

M. D. can claim two books. One is an e-book, The Blue-Haired Shadow and Other Tales, a collection of short stories, that he put out in part to learn the mechanics of e-publishing. The other is a math book, An Introduction to Multivariable Analysis, from Vector to Manifold, co-written with Piotr Mikusiński. 

More short stories are in the pipeline, and there are a number of ideas for possible novels. There is also an old novel, The Demon’s Heart, that M. D. is dusting off, brushing up, and hopes to put out before terribly long.

In addition, he has a slowly growing interest in philosophy. He has the suspicion that many of our society’s problems trace back to the fact that we are largely unconscious of what we believe, why, or its implications.