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 Sam Barone – A Brief Biography
Born and raised in New York, I attended Manhattan College, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1965, with a major in Psychology and a minor in History.
After a hitch in the Marine Corps, I started taking computer classes, and began writing software (back in the days when programs were still written on punched cards).
As a software developer and manager, I spent most of my time writing numerous business proposals, business case studies, and cost/benefit analysis reports. These documents requested or supported multi-million dollar funding requests, and so needed to be both detailed, accurate, and readable (to describe technical requirements and proposals in non-technical terms).
Since I’d always been considered something of a story-teller, I got a good many of my business proposals accepted. (Who says there’s no fiction in real life?).
After spending nearly 30 years in the software development, I retired in 1999 to start working on my second job: writing.
I’d done some writing before. In 1987, I took a writing course at UCLA and wrote my first short story. When I presented it to my professor, he asked what else I had published. For my own enjoyment, I wrote a 300K word science fiction novel. I never tried to get it published, but received some good feedback from teachers and other writers. (One of these days I’ll resurrect it and bring it up to date.)
When I retired, I began working on a science-fiction novel. After a few months, I began having recurring dreams about an ancient warrior, drafted by a small village to defend it from an oncoming barbarian invasion. The dreams would not go away, and started becoming more and more detailed, more and more real to me.
To get the story out of my head, I decided to write a chapter, knowing there’s nothing like actual work to make you lose interest. So I started writing what became Chapter 1, fully expecting that the work of writing would get the story (and the dreams) out of my mind. But by the time I finished drafting the story of Eskkar, more dreams, this time including Trella, had started to fill my nights. (Dreams of Trella were, I may say, a lot more pleasant!).
So another chapter got written, and by then, I was hooked. I had to know how the story ended. So I kept writing and the story grew and grew, with my dreams providing more and more of the story.
In the end, I’m not sure how much fiction is in Eskkar’s story. No matter what you may say, I believe in my heart that I was there, perhaps not as one of the main characters, but someone close enough to know the story.
No matter. The story, Dawn Of Empire, goes on, and the sequel ‘Empire Rising’ is soon to be published. There is another story, a collection of tales about Eskkar’s youth and early wanderings (and Trella’s misfortunes) that may someday be published to continue the saga. 
Some of my favorite Historical Novels (Recently Read):
The First Man in Rome: by Colleen McCullough. She also wrote The Grass Crown, Fortune’s Favorites, Caesar’s Women, & The October Horse. Intriguing novels of Rome that have plenty to say about politics today (Nothing has changed).
The Sharpe Series: by Bernard Cornwell. Sharpe’s Rifles, Sharpe’s Tigers, etc… endless series of action stories set during the Napoleonic Wars.
The Horatio Hornblower Series: by C. S. Forrester. One of the role models for Captain Kirk of Star Trek, and simply the first and best sea stories ever written.
Pillars Of The Earth: Ken Follett - one of my favorites
The Shadow Of God: Anthony A. Goodman - a 16th century historical, same time frame as another story I’m working on.
Beyond The Sea of Ice: William Sarabande (prehistoric story about the first Americans)
The Twentieth Wife: Indu Sundaresan (2002)
The Red Tent: Anita Diamant (1998)
Some of the Research Material For Dawn Of Empire:
Carnage And Culture: by Victor Davis Hanson
Guns, Germs, And Steel: by Jared Diamond
A History Of Warfare: by John Kegan
The End Of The Bronze Age: by Robert Drews
Everyday Life In Babylonia and Assyria: by H. W. F. Saggs
The Ancient Engineers: by L. Sprague de Camp
The Archer’s Craft: by Adrian Hodgkin
Technology In The Ancient World: by Henry Hodges
The Red Tent: by Anita Diamant
The Devil’s Horsemen: by James Chambers
Favorite Authors (who really taught me how to write):
In no particular order...
Issac Asimov - The Foundation Trilogy is still one of my favorites, and shows how to take the long view.
C. S. Forrester - Horatio Hornblower Series - really shows you how to get into a character’s head.
Tom Clancy - keep it interesting, keep it moving.
Bermard Cornwell - The Richard Sharpe series - created a rough, tough, not very likable hero that we all like.
Ken Follett, Frederick Forsythe, Colleen McCullough, Jane Auel - showed what good, big novels are like.
Robert Graves - I, Claudius, still a great read about ancient Rome.
J. Michael, Straczynski - Creator/producer/writer of Babylon 5 TV SciFi Series - showed how to write an ARC. More than anyone, showed that good writing makes a difference.
Erle Stanley Gardner - Creator of the Perry Mason mysteries, and non-stop action that leaves you out of breath.
Rex Stout - the psychology of the detective and his criminals.
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