Readers of TWILLINGER’S VOYAGE often comment that the book seems very realistic. This impression arises not only by plausible details of traveling, living and working in space, but also by a convincing description of an entire self-sustaining interstellar economic system. Perhaps this is because Daniel Turner, the author, has spent a good part of his life estimating economic and technical possibilities professionally.

Early in his career he worked his way up to a position where he was looking at corporate acquisition possibilities for his employer, a "Dow-Jones Industrial" corporation. Then he joined an economic consulting firm and performed feasibility studies for hotels, office buildings, shopping centers and planned communities. Eventually he became an independent consultant, working with appraisers and real-estate developers on complex assignments. He testified as an expert witness in court, worked on bankruptcies, tax cases, redevelopment projects, and many other unusual situations. A high point of this career was a seminar he gave for the US National Academy of Sciences on speculative land valuation and related economic modeling techniques.

Computers were just beginning to emerge in the commercial world when Dan started out. In his first job he introduced the use of computers to the financial planning process of an international corporation, writing their first sales budget projection programs. In subsequent years he wrote all sorts of programs--a variety of cash flow projection models, shopping center sales and rent models, demographic projections... etc. Eventually he switched over to computers full time, programming a system for real estate agents to share listing information "on-line", and for more than a decade operated various computerized "multiple listing services" as a contractor.

Dan lives with his wife of 30+ years near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His writing probably reflects the Quaker heritage of the "City of Brotherly Love," and two Quaker founded schools-- Haverford College and the University of Pennsylvania--where he received his education. Ever since his teens he has been an avid reader of science journals and classic Science Fiction. Interests include ice and roller-skating, skiing, gardening, and taking walks with the family poodles.