Bob-Rich

Bob Rich, Ph.D., is a visitor from a faraway galaxy, where he is an historian of horror. So, Earth is his favourite place in the universe. Nowhere else do sentient beings engage in a game of killing non-combatants (war). Nowhere else are child raising practices designed to harm children. And delicious for an historian of horror: nowhere else is the entire global economy designed to destroy its life support system.

Here on Earth, he is disguised as an Australian storyteller, with 19 published books. Five books, and over 40 short stories, have won awards.

He has retired five times so far, from five different occupations, one being psychotherapy, so six of his books are psychological self-help. He still works as an editor for several small publishers and a steady stream of writers.

Above all, he is a Professional Grandfather. Anyone born since 1993 is his grandchild. Everything he does strives for a survivable future for them, and one worth surviving in. This means environmental and humanitarian activism: an attempt to change a worldwide culture of greed and aggression into one of compassion and cooperation.

He has been writing since 1980, with a byline column in “Earth Garden” magazine and other periodicals. His first book, “The Earth Garden Building Book: Design and build your own house,” went through four editions between 1986 and 2018. A biography, “Aniko: The stranger who loved me” has won four awards. Two of his novels are science fiction, with “Ascending Spiral” having gone through four print runs.

He discovered that he was a Buddhist at 23, when a Presbyterian minister told him. When he checked up on this claim, he found his philosophy set out in beautiful words. He decided not to sue the Buddha for plagiarism, as an act of metta (lovingkindness).