The Plasma Master

Nedward Simmons is living a regular Earth life when he stumbles across an artifact from an alien civilization. Its protective powers are more intriguing than useful to him, until the aliens themselves arrive. Unable to hand over the power he has unwittingly acquired, Ned decides instead to travel with them in an attempt to defeat the Anacron army, which threatens their freedom. But Ned soon learns that his Plasma Crystal is not the only source of mysterious power in the galaxy. Ned and his comrades must deal with a vast space armada, enemy Plasma Masters, and even a monster or two as they search for a way to penetrate the enemy fortress of Venom and restore peace to their empire.

I'm a software engineer and a pretty dang good husband and dad. I graduated from the University of Washington and have lived pretty much my whole life in Washington state, except for two years in the Oriental Republic of Uruguay on a church mission. I still pronounce the "LL" in "tortilla" like an "SH".
I love Mega Man and Metroid, and I have beaten Gradius and Contra without cheating. When pressed to compare Star Trek and Star Wars, I say that best of Star Trek is better than the best of Star Wars, although the average coolness:time ratio might be higher in Star Wars, at least for the original trilogy.
I don't really think of myself as an author - I'm definitely keeping my day job. But with all those sci-fi ideas bouncing around in my head, eventually enough of them coalesced that I could form a story. I'm glad they did, because I actually have a hard time finding sci-fi books that I like. (If I can't share it with my kids, I probably won't like it either.) And I'm even more happy that a quadruple-digit number of other people have shared it. I guess nothing brings people together like saving the galaxy with cool powers and cool tech!
http://BrianRushton.blogspot.com