Venus Mons Iliad: Book One

“Women – will men ever understand them? Maybe not, but like Ish we spend our life trying.”
- Edward Squires, Not Quite a Novella

“I was there along the sidelines, so I can attest the truth of Bill Burkett’s words,” says editor and anthologist Hollis George.

Like Homer’s Iliad, this too is an epic story, the recounting of a man’s journey, in this case through a life filled with a strange species called “woman.” The dedication, quoting the song To All the Girls I Loved Before, says it all. If men are from Mars and women from Venus, here is a sci-fi writer exploring the space between them. Like Moby Dick’s narrator, Ishmael tells of a search with an elusive goal, understanding the women in his life.

William R. Burkett, Jr. published his first novel at 18. His first job was as a copy boy for the Florida Times-Union and Jacksonville Journal, but that soon gave way to a position as feature writer. After a tour of duty as an MP in Germany, he resumed his journalistic career. Working in both the States and the Bahamas, he pursued a particular muse – duck hunting. That led to writing for hunting magazines and doing PR for the Washington State Highway Patrol and settlement in the Pacific Northwest where the ducks were plentiful and the fishing was good.