My name is David Sheppard. I am a literary theorist, researcher and experimentalist exploring natural and psychic phenomena as they relate to storytelling and sleep. I hold a BS from Arizona State University and an MS from Stanford University. I also studied creative writing and American Literature at the University of Colorado. I have written eleven books, both fiction and nonfiction including the following:

• Story Alchemy: The Search for the Philosopher’s Stone of Storytelling
• Carpathian Vampire: …when you’ve never known love… by Lumi Laura (with David Sheppard)
• Oedipus on a Pale Horse, Journey through Greece in Search of a Personal Mythology.
• The Mysteries, A Novel of Ancient Eleusis (Two Volumes)
• Novelsmithing, The Structural Foundation of Plot, Character, and Narration.
• The Escape of Bobby Ray Hammer
• Introduction to Frankenstein: Origin and Aftermath
• The Eternal Return: Oedipus, The Tempest, Forbidden Planet

My poetry has appeared in The Paris Review and in England (The 1987 Arvon International Poetry Competition Anthology judged by Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney). While living in Colorado, I was a member of the Rocky Mountain Writers Guild for seven years, participated in its Live Poets Society and Advanced Novel Workshop, and chaired its Literary Society. I founded a novel critique group that lasted ten years. I have attended the Aspen Writers Conference in Colorado and the Sierra Writing Camp in California. I have taught Novel Writing and Greek Mythology at New Mexico State University at Carlsbad in the Continuing Education Department. I have traveled throughout western Europe and am an amateur photographer and astronomer.

I grew up in California and have lived in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, and currently reside in Healdsburg, California. I have worked as a farmer, bank teller, electronics technician, combat crew member on ICBM’s, aerospace engineer, library assistant, and taught astronomy at NMSU-Carlsbad. My thirty-year aerospace career included work on the Viking Project which landed the first robots on Mars, and many Space Shuttle related projects. On the international Shuttle Earth-Imaging Radar (SIR-C), I was the liaison between NASA and the European Space Agency, working primarily with German and Italian aerospace companies. For three years, I was one of JPL/NASA’s Solar System Ambassadors. I am a senior member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. I served eight years in the US Air Force during the Vietnam era, both in the enlisted ranks and as an officer. My greatest love is ancient Greek mythology and religion. I have been reading the writings of Carl Jung for over twenty years. I was in psychotherapy for almost five years. I am single and have two grown kids.