Rory Harper is an American science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 writer and community activist

Activism

Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...

 living in College Station, Texas. He was born in Beaumont

Beaumont, Texas

Beaumont is a city in and county seat of Jefferson County, Texas, United States, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's population was 118,296 at the 2010 census. With Port Arthur and Orange, it forms the Golden Triangle, a major industrial area on the...

, Texas, and attended the University of Houston

University of Houston

The University of Houston is a state research university, and is the flagship institution of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1927, it is Texas's third-largest university with nearly 40,000 students. Its campus spans 667 acres in southeast Houston, and was known as University of...

 but did not graduate. He was one of the founders of Houston's Inlet Drug Crisis Center, where he worked with harm reduction

Harm reduction

Harm reduction refers to a range of public health policies designed to reduce the harmful consequences associated with recreational drug use and other high risk activities...

 pioneer David F. Duncan

David F. Duncan

David F. Duncan, Dr. P.H. was born in Kansas City, Missouri on June 26, 1947. He is President of Duncan & Associates, a firm providing consultation on research design and data collection for behavioral and policy studies. He is also Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health...

.

He has published science fiction and horror short stories in many science fiction magazines, some of which have been anthologized. His one novel, Petrogypsies

Petrogypsies

Petrogypsies is a critically acclaimed science fiction novel by Rory Harper that has achieved cult status among science fiction fans in the Texas/Oklahoma oilfields. It incorporates a short story that was published in 1985 in Far Frontiers, vol 2...

was published by Baen Books in 1989 and has since become a cult novel in and around the Texas oilfields. DarkStar Books released a new, partially-illustrated trade paperback edition of Petrogypsies

Petrogypsies

Petrogypsies is a critically acclaimed science fiction novel by Rory Harper that has achieved cult status among science fiction fans in the Texas/Oklahoma oilfields. It incorporates a short story that was published in 1985 in Far Frontiers, vol 2...

(ISBN: 978-0-9819866-1-6) in December 2009, and plans to continue the series with two more volumes (Sprocket Goes International, Sprocket Goes Interstellar) in 2010 and 2011.

Harper is one of a group of regular contributors to the Eat Our Brains blog.

Short fiction

• Psycho-Stars (Asimov's, Mar 1980)
• M-M-Magic (Fantasy Book, Dec 1981)
• Duty to the Empire (Amazing Stories, Sep 1983)
• Petrogypsies (Far Frontiers, Volume II, Apr 1985)
• Regeneration (Aboriginal SF, Dec 1986)
• Snorkeling in The River Lethe (Amazing Stories, Jan 1987)
• Triage (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Feb 1988)
• Monsters, Tearing off My Face (Asimov's, May 1989; The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Third Annual Collection, 1990)
• God's Bullets (Aboriginal SF, Nov 1990)
• Do Me Good (Pulphouse, Sep 1993)
• Leonardo's Hands, with Steven Gould
  Steven Gould
  Steven Charles Gould is an American science fiction author and teacher. He has written eight novels and is best known for his 1992 novel Jumper, which was made into a film and released in 2008. He is married to science fiction writer Laura J...
  
  (RevolutionSF, Aug 2005) ( available online)
• Therapeutic Intervention (The Living Dead 2, ed. John Joseph Adams, 2010)

External links

• Eat Our Brains group blog