As a young man, Richard Wheeler had a clear goal. He wanted to be a newsman, and maybe even a pundit, contributing his ideas to the commonwealth. But his life turned into a series of disasters, and by midlife he was out of work and unemployable. He had no idea how to make a living. As a last resort he turned to fiction, and somehow found himself in a new world, filled with friends and colleagues who taught him how to create a story and sell it. This was the world of genre fiction, the world of paperback racks in supermarkets, where westerns, romances, mysteries, and science fiction are sold. That was Wheeler's new world, and it continues to support and fulfill him.