Edpool, aka Hatboy, aka Andrew Hindle (He/Him/His)
Originating in southwestern Australia in the late 1970s, Edpool was raised on a diet of Doctor Who, Red Dwarf and books by Douglas Hill as often as Hill’s poor imitators Asimov and Clarke (fight me). He was deemed “too annoying” to be permitted into his school Dungeons and Dragons club. This left him with more time to read.
While science fiction remains his oldest and fondest friend, it was the epic fantasy (yes, that one) of Robert Jordan that led him to cross the world. Specifically, Arguing On The Internet on the old text-only forums of Usenet. There, while finishing off his very useful Bachelor of English degree, he honed his ability to review,
critique, write appalling fan fiction and basically argue until his fingers bled. He fell in love with a she-nerd in Finland and moved there.
Like most immigrants in Finland, he’s been there ever since, and remains unsure why. He got a job writing instruction manuals for Nokia and did that through most of the smartphone revolution. He started a blog and reviewed some movies, some TV shows, some books.
Edpool was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2011 and decided to make a book out of the harrowing and hilarious series of social media exchanges he collected about the ordeal, from first symptom to final clean bill of health. He decided that nobody was going to tell him how or what to write in a story so personal, and so he self-published it.
And then he thought hold on, all my stories are this personal. And so he started publishing science fiction and science fantasy and he basically hasn’t stopped since. He’s currently working on his 18th novel.
When not working his day job as a frazzled and despairing technical writer (read the fucking manual, people!), Edpool can be found adding the occasional uplifting bit of discourse on Twitter as well as mooching around Goodreads and attempting to sell his books on Amazon for convention money.
What brought you to SPSFC?
While exploring Independent Author Twitter I ran into SPSFC’s mum, SPFBO, and after literally minutes of soul-searching entered one of my most fantasy-esque stories in it. At the same time, I noticed there was a push for a science fiction version! Excited, I began planning to enter that too. Over-excited, I entered my blog, Hatboy’s Hatstand, as a potential part of the judging team instead. And here I am. Team Space Lasagna, Poop Deck Swabbie Edpool reporting for duty, ready to read a ton of books and mouth off about them all.
bigbeardednerd.com 