Who I am

Hello.


My name is Kurt Jean Hargan. I was born in Palmer, Alaska in 1961. My generation is very strange. 


We were children during the Cold War. We all expected the world to end in a nuclear holocaust. It was almost a given. Glad it didn't, but I wouldn't have wasted my 20's if I actually thought we were going to go on past 1984.


My family moved to San Jose, California in 1965, so most of my childhood was spent there. You had to find a pay phone and have a dime if you wanted to call someone. You had no idea what your friends were up to or where they had been until you actually talked to them.


We left front and back doors open 24 hours, until a hippie broke in, in 1969. 


I was a teenager as music on the radio went from country rock to disco and then turned to punk. My father worked for IBM so I saw computers the size of houses, less powerful than the laptop on which I'm writing this bio. I saw the world go from 3 billion human beings to 6 billion. It is estimated we will soon hit 7 billion. 


I saw gasoline go from .50 a gallon to $4.50. I used to buy five comic books for a dollar, sometimes four and a candy bar.


I'm not pining for the good old days, because I never really had good old days. My generation, the real Generation X, has seen change, real change, constant change. Change doesn't frighten me. It feels like my childhood, like my life. Change is good.


I believe the world can and will get better, but it will always go through rough patches because of greedy, short sighted humans. 


I believe in god. Not your god, not anybody's god. I don't believe a force as awesome as the one that set our universe in motion wants me to go to a little brick building and give my hard earned cash to some parasite who does no work for a living. I like Sting's philosophy when he said, I'm paraphrasing, the universe is much too interesting of a place not to think there isn't something out there. There's something very appealing, and it feels right to me, to acknowledge the presence and mystery of a Creator.


I think every person I have ever met is fascinating, even the most selfishly awful people are worth the time to get to know. At least they can always become the wonderfully realistic villains my novels contain. 


My novels are about finding hope in desperately hopeless situations. Humans have the ability to change everything about themselves, their environment, their relationships, their culture, and very, very quickly. All you have to do is be considerate of the other human, and you won't make wrong choices.


Cheers,


Kurt