Michael Starks completed five years of graduate study in teh physical and biological sciences at the University of California Berkeley. He has written two nonfiction books on the botany and chemistry of psychoactive plants (Marijuana Potency, And/Or Press, 1977, and The Fabulous Illustrated History of Stimulants and Intoxicants, Loompanics Press, 1980)

He has devoted the last four years to the study of imaging technologies, especially three-dimensional film and video and, with Lenny Lipton, has founed Deep and Solid Laboratories, which produces the world's highest quality three-dimensional motion pictures. He has created a line of electronic jewelry and is writing two novels concerning recombinant DNA and spy satellites. He is thirty-eight years old, is single, and lives in Berkeley, California.