I fell in love with science fiction from reading Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Larry Niven, Greg Bear, Greg Benford, Robert Silverberg, and Roger Zelazny.
I earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry, so naturally enough, biotechnology is common in my science fiction. But don’t worry, you can find space travel, space battles, computers, and robots in my published fiction.
I grew up in the Midwest–in that broad swathe of America disdained by the bicoastal elites as “flyover country”–and I both understand and respect Middle America in a way too many science fiction and fantasy writers these days don’t.