Harlen Campbell

"A writer of fiction has just one obligation -- to entertain the reader.
Only if he has done that superbly can he deal with his personal concerns in a story."

Here's the bio sheet booksellers get:

Harlen Campbell

Harlen Campbell, a writer of mystery/suspense novels, lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His first novel, MONKEY ON A CHAIN, was released by Doubleday in 1993. In addition to favorable reviews (FIRSTS magazine recommended the book as a collectable), MONKEY was an alternate selection of the Book of the Month Club.

The book is the first of a series built around the character of Rainbow Porter, who has been described as a "throwback to the outlaw/heroes of the old west." In fact, Porter was inspired by a combination of John D. Macdonald's Travis McGee and television's Paladin character, with more than a touch of the pirate thrown in. He is a man who lives on the edge, but who has enough intelligence and depth to make him memorable.

Campbell attended New Mexico State University and has BA's in English and Journalism and an MA in English Literature. Except for a brief stint as a journalist with the US Army and an even briefer one teaching college English, he never used his degrees professionally. Before he started writing, most of his work was in construction, real estate and computer programming, but he has also done satellite tracking, tended bar, and turned a dollar in a number of less likely ways.

Campbell's interests lie in the nature of the individual's relationships to society and to the world, but he is willing to apologize if they show up in his writing. In fact, he believes that a writer's primary obligation is to entertain, and that he should only be allowed to fool around with ideas if his readers don't notice what he's up to.

Although he admits to no hobbies and energetically avoids most forms of exercise, Campbell enjoys an occasional solitary walk. In general, he prefers beaches to mountains, warm to cold, indolence to industry.