Michael H. Payne clerks at his local library, sings and plays guitar at his local Catholic church, and hosts a Sunday afternoon radio program at his local branch of the University of California. His short stories have appeared in places like Asimov’s SF magazine, the Writers of the Future contest anthology, and the last eight of the annual Sword & Sorceress collections while his novels have been published by Tor Books and Sofawolf Press. Norman Spinrad has called his work "the sort of thing for which the word ’sui generis’ was invented."