Dave Freer is a South African–born, Australian-based, award-winning[1] science fiction author writing mostly humorous or alternate history novels.
After a stint in boarding school, where he learned "Smoking, strong drink and pursuit of wild women",[2] he was conscripted at the age of 17 into the South African Defence Force and sent to the Angolan border as a medic (his last choice).
To make ends meet, and alleviate writing "amazingly dull" papers on fishery matters, he moonlighted as a commercial diver for a mussel farm.
[3] Dave has his own forum at Baen's Bar,[4] a website,[2] and a blog about "the Freer Family's adventures and misadventures emigrating to Flinders Island".
Note: a significant amount of text, and a couple of major characters in this work, are adapted from stories written by Lackey in the Merovingen Nights shared universe series.