The Long, Slightly Pretentious Bio
Lee Falin is a bestselling author, teacher, and scientist. He has a PhD in Genetics, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology from Virginia Tech, and spent several years teaching and conducting research in machine learning, data science, and computational biology. He has also worked in the commercial software, defense, and fintech industries.
He’s written dozens of academic and popular science articles on a variety of topics, and is the creator and host of My Cousin Jane, a podcast that explores the historical contexts of Jane Austen’s writing.
Lee met his wife while they were serving as volunteer missionaries in Brazil 🇧🇷. Together, they’ve raised five amazing children, a shocking number of which are now adults.
Aside from formal university teaching, Lee loves speaking about writing, and has taught workshops to children, teens, and adults; and has worked for several years as a children’s storyteller for the local fall festival.
Lee is also a volunteer librarian for The StoryGraph, and the caretaker of a neighborhood children’s library.
The Short, Slightly Less Pretentious Bio
Lee Falin is a bestselling middle-grade and young adult science fiction author, and the host of My Cousin Jane — a podcast about Jane Austen and her works. Lee has a PhD in Genetics from Virginia Tech, but it didn’t take him long to realize that real science wasn’t anything like Star Trek, so these days he writes more fiction than research. Lee's claim to fame is that he is the caretaker of a small children's lending library.
The bio I would give if we happened to be at the same dinner party and most of the other guests were busy talking about sports, and you managed to corner me while I was trying to nonchalantly browse the host's bookcases while also desperately trying to remember their last name...
Oh, hi...yes, I'm a writer. I write sci-fi and fantasy adventure stories, targeted mostly towards older middle grade / younger YA readers. You know, the age range of the Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, and Fablehaven series (series'? serieses? seriai?); though I hope people of all ages will like my books.
Well, yes, technically I am a bestselling author, though that likely doesn't mean what you think it means, so I try not to mention that at parties. I actually wrote something about that on my website. Perhaps you’ve read it? No? Well, maybe next time you're waiting for the dentist.
Oh, where do I get my ideas? Well, pretty much everywhere. Talking to people, going to dinner parties, waiting in line at grocery stores, chatting with my cats. The trick is not to wear earbuds all the time. Then you begin to notice things. You see, one of the—what? Well yes, actually, I am planning on how I can use this conversation in a story.
Hmm? Oh, sure, sure, I can write the scene as if you were taller and slightly more fit. It is fiction after all.
How did I get into writing? Well, I've been writing stories since I was a kid. I had the same problem Yoda accused Luke Skywalker of, "Never his mind on where he was..." you know? I'd endure boring classes in school with a sci-fi or fantasy novel hidden behind my textbook, or while scratching out stories in my notebook. To be clear, this isn't an academic coping strategy I recommend, but I lacked Yoda's guidance.
But, it took me a long time to finally publish a book. And once I had published my first two, life got busy with work and family and such, so it was several years between the first two and numbers three and four. And now that my children are mostly adults busy with their own lives, I find I spend considerably more time talking to the cats, which as I mentioned, means more story ideas.
That's very kind of you, thank you. Honestly, the best way to help out is to just tell your friends about my books, or leave a review on Goodreads or Amazon. That way—well, yes, obviously I mean a positive review. Didn't your grandmother ever tell you that if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all?
Anyway, great chat but I—Humperdink! Hmm? Oh, no, I wasn't cursing at you...I just remembered the host's last name. It's Humperdink.