About the Author

Roberta Rogow has been telling stories ever since she could hold a pen, pencil, or crayon. She could sing even before she could speak. She has combined her two loves—music and literature—in a series of career moves that took her from the coffeehouses of Greenwich Village to the libraries of New Jersey where she spent 37 years as a children’s librarian. She retired in 2008 so that she could concentrate on writing and music.

Roberta grew up in Queens, New York, the daughter of Stanley Winston, a corporation lawyer, who turned actor when he retired at age 65, and Shirley Winston, a clinical psychologist and pioneer in the field of psychic healing.

After graduating Queens College in 1962, Roberta studied acting at the Stella Adler school and appeared in off-off Broadway productions and children’s theater. She married Murray Rogow, a publicity agent and advertising copywriter in 1963, had two children, then attended the Columbia University School of Library Science to achieve her master’s degree in 1971. Beginning in 1971 Roberta was employed as a children’s librarian, first in the Paterson Public Library, then in Ridgefield, and finally, in Union, New Jersey. She retired in January 2008.

The turning point of her life came in 1966 when she saw the very first episode of Star Trek and was instantly hooked. It wasn’t until 1973, however, that Roberta got involved with Star Trek fandom, which provided an outlet for her talents: writing fanfic and filk lyrics, collecting fanzine information for the Trexindex (a book index to Star Trek/media fanzines, which she published between 1977 and 1987), and concocting costumes to be shown at Star Trek and science fiction (sf) conventions. Roberta attended her first world sf convention (worldcon) in Boston in 1980 and has been a regular panelist and performer at regional and worldcons ever since.

Her connections in fandom led her to professional publication, first in the Merovingen Nights anthologies edited by C. J. Cherryh, then in Sherlock Holmes pastiche anthologies edited by Marvin Kaye. This experience led to four mystery novels in which the Reverend Mr. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll) and young Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle collaborate as detectives and two more novels set in post-Civil War New York City. She then wrote six novels set in an alternate universe, best described as “The Last of the Mohicans meets Arabian Nights with a Spanish accent.” Her most recent books are the noir-ish cases of Pola Drach, independent eye, in the city of Lorr on a planet “somewhere out there” on the other side of the sky according to V. I. Washawski.

Roberta is known in science fiction fandom as a singer and writer of filk, which are science fiction folk songs. In 2013 she was inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame. She has also competed in masquerades (costume contests), and costume calls, winning workmanship prizes for her knitted and crocheted garments.

Roberta was aided and abetted in her pursuit of fannish glory by her husband, Murray Rogow, who died in 2002. One daughter, Miriam Ann Moore, a concierge in the American Express lounge at San Francisco airport, lives in San Francisco with her husband, Matt Moore, a registered nurse. Another daughter, Louise Katherine Howard, a computer consultant, lives in Fairfax, Virginia, with her son, Will. Louise and Will are frequently seen at regional sf and gaming conventions, where she enjoys steampunking and he haunts the gaming room.

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