Robert Blackburn is most at home playing with fire and knives. The son of a mildly autistic real estate attorney, he led an over privileged yet under loved youth in Marietta, GA. Mentored by Nebula winning author Brad Linaweaver while in high school, he worked hard at becoming a writer before realizing he had shockingly little to say. After dropping out of the University of Georgia, he spent a few years clerking in book and record shops before embarking on a 30-year odyssey running commercial kitchens, a career arc retroactively burnished with glamour by the unfortunate celebritization of the trade. Most recently, he spent the Covid-19 lockdown writing a 157-page training manual for cooks at the Last Resort in Athens, GA. He has a degree in Computer Networking and once found himself hip to hip at a public urinal with Forrest J Ackerman. Prior to tzzhe suspension of international air travel, he and his lovely wife had the great pleasure to dine at St. John in Smithfield, London and enjoyed it very, very much. Shamefully on Instagram @thehorridchild.