Cary Neeper--Writings
© 2002 Carolyn A. Neeper

Currently working on "U.F.F.D.U.H!" a comic opera based on "The Crystal Diadem," a sci-fi spoof. Just when the United Free Federation of Decidedly Unbellicose Heterocracies is about to ask the peaceful agrarian Earth of 3002 AD to join, a silicon adventuress with a questionably occult Diadem decides to forcibly take over the Federation. Having not done war for ages, no one knows what to do--until a human florist decides to help the flustered aliens.

I was born in Oakland, California, in 1937 to Jessie Hillman Jones Almond, a most loving mother and a talented organist. She could make sound flow in one delicate stream through the Methodist Church. In her early days she was a teacher of mathematics, then a devoted business partner to the love of her life, my father, Harold Russell Almond Sr. He was a self-taught marine engineer, veteran of the California shipyards in both World Wars, a trombonist who produced the sweetest of tones, a devoted father who never raised his voice in anger, a home designer and builder, descended from Scottish and English ancestors, a religious skeptic who had a joke to fit every occasion, the most accepting, selfless, level-headed man many people had ever met. Pa’s Shipyard Stories. Pa’s collection of favorite, clean jokes.

As the child Carolyn Almond, growing up on our apricot ranch in Hayward, California, I fell in love with "Moby Dick," wrote tragic poetry, read the Oz books over and over, and tried to imitate the beloved dog stories I read. In the fifties I graduated from Hayward High School, then Pomona College, with a major in Zoology-Chemistry and an unofficial minor in Religion. I married Don Neeper and we went off to the University of Wisconsin. After earning a Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology (1962), I put aside a career killing mice to raise our three girls. Our son, who had a "different" cry from birth, developed the "Salaam Syndrome" at fourteen months. His prognosis was for no further mental development. The prognosis turned out to be true, almost. At 37 years of age he still needs the safety and expert care of professional help, but he now has the loveable character of a two-year-old. His story and what he has taught us lingers in my file cabinet.

Husband Don, now a Ph.D physicist, decided he wanted to raise our girls in the mountains of New Mexico near southern Colorado, where he grew up. In Los Alamos our lives were filled with music and animals: shepherd mix dogs, chickens, rabbits, a turkey, loving rats, and a skunk named Streak. I played string bass in the local amateur symphony, in musical theater orchestras, with a beloved group of folk singers, and with the Los Alamos Big Band.

Alarmed by the environmental and overpopulation alerts in the early 1970’s, I began writing again. I published newspaper and magazine articles, a newspaper column, scientific papers, a few short stories, and book reviews for The Christian Science Monitor.

I followed with growing excitement the lay literature in cosmology, animal studies, and science and religion issues. I studied Herman Daly’s steady-state economics and wrote A Place Beyond Man and The Webs of Varok in order to explore how a steady-state economy might work. (A Place Beyond Man was published in 1975 by Scribner’s, Dell, and Millington, London. It was out of print in 1979, and the rights reverted to me on October 22, 1999 from Simon and Schuster.)

When the girls went off to college, I bought a computer to continue writing science fiction and, instead, started a small computer support and database consulting business. I also worked for the Merrick Corporation and the Los Alamos National Laboratory for a few years.

In the last fifteen years playing string bass expanded to include jazz. Computer time has expanded to include volunteer graphics design. Reading has expanded to include complexity theory and philosophy. My family has expanded to include four granddaughters. An attempt to befriend a turtle has led to a full blown aquarium, and the trombe-wall heated chicken/turkey house built by nephew Bob Almond now has six new residents.

Three years ago I unearthed the unpublished sequels to A Place Beyond Man, updated them as The Archives of Varok, and rewrote A Place Beyond Man as The View Beyond Earth. Since the concept of sustainability seemed to need a reality check, I reviewed Daly’s recent work, consolidated my studies in science and theology, then added two novels to the Archives’ multi-species family saga.

Life is full. I’ve been very lucky. Spiritually I’ve been shaped 1) by the strengthening, unconditional love of my parents, 2) by the faithful and indulgent love of my mate of 40-some years, who still keeps me growing, 3) by the books I have read (See the Recommended Reading for Shawne: An Alien’s Quest), 4) by the animals I have known or met along the way, including wild dolphins, llamas, and scrub jays, 5) by the light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel experience as a young, panicked teenager, in which I was told not to sweat the details, 6) by my cure from crippling back spasms by Rolfing, 7) by the fact that I was rescued from certain death at age 3 days by inventive surgeons who gave me a shot of whiskey and sliced open a complete pyloric stenosis, and 8) by a recent near-death experience ending a twenty year search for the cause of sudden anaphylactic reactions (aspirin sensitivity and exercise after eating).

Because of these and other transcendent experiences, I am not convinced we can learn all there is to know through testing and gathering evidence (science). Nor can I ever be sure my experience has led me to Truth. Everyone’s experience is different. All I can hope to do is grow in personal faith, inspired by what I have learned. I am an expert at nothing but sifting--scanning the current flood of information to catch the gems that lead to new paradigms, to try on ideas useful in building faith and meaning for the 21st century. I hope you will join us now, as we explore the Big Issues.