So how did EPSILON come about?  To answer that I have to take you back to 1988 when I was just a neophyte college student at Mercer County Community College in Trenton, NJ.  As I left the conformist factory of high school behind and embraced the greater freedoms of college, I slowly started to refine the writer in me.  That talent manifested itself in high school as I worked on the student newspaper and literary magazine.  Much of my fiction writing came in an underground story I circulated among friends.  It dealt with all of us at the school being agents fighting a subversive organization bent on world domination.  In all honesty, I can't even take credit for the concept.  A friend of mine, Dave Eppley, did the very first story for some writing class.  I just ran with it from there.  Since he didn't sue me or beat me up in the boys room, I figured he had no problem with it.

     Those early stories in my "School Wars" saga were pretty poor when it came to plots and character development.  The good guys all were smart and heroic and the bad guys all had the combined IQ of a potted plant.  The plots came straight out of a GI Joe cartoon.  You know, the head bad guy steps forward and declares, "I have built (insert hi-tech, incredibly powerful and destructive device here) which will give us the power to rule the world!  MWWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!"

     Once I got to college, I figured it was time for a change.  The next stage of my evaluation as a writer produced Skystreak, another underground series featuring
my first armor-clad hero.  But, even this was not totally original.  I set my superhero stories in the Marvel Universe.  Still, I mainly had Skystreak go off his own adventures without aid from Captain America, Thor or Spiderman.  I even created original villains for him to fight like the alien cyborg Darkfire, the Aryan Guard and (my personal favorite) the techno-demon Wrath.  Eventually I gave Skystreak a girlfriend who eventually became his superhero partner, codename Diskette.  Some of my stories got rather gritty, like one dealing with Satan worshippers and another where Diskette is raped and Skystreak goes insane with revenge.  This would eventually set the tone of EPSILON.

     Fun as Skystreak was, as my college career wound down I felt it time to go off on my own.  To create my own superhero universe, and change some of the aspects commonplace to comic books.  First off, I wanted NO elaborate technology!  Spiderman, The Avengers & Fantastic Four are set in the present day, but people run around with laser rifles, giant robots and devices that can teleport or send you to other dimensions.  I eliminated that in EPSILON.  The rule is only technology that is possible given our present level of advancement will be featured in the book.  The exception is technology of an extra-terrestrial origin (i.e. Epsilon's armor).  Also, NO long-winded speeches while two superhumans are beating the heck out of one another.  I dare say most people don't recite Shakespeare while someone's fist repeatedly smashes their face.  I also wanted the police to behave like real cops.  As a reporter, I've learned a big chunk of police work is
using your brain to hunt down criminals.  Most cops I know don't whip out their guns five times a day or find "that one, vital clue" that an army of detectives, FBI agents and Forensic investigators fail to spot.  Finally, the police would not be friendly to superheroes.  If Commissioner Gordon existed in the real world, they'd fire his butt and probably throw him in jail for working with a vigilante like Batman.  Cops don't like people that take the law into their own hands.

     Armed with all that, I set to work on EPSILON (and honestly, folks, I have no idea how I decided to call my hero that).  Since Epsilon came about thanks to a cosmic entity called The Keeper, I could have some fun with his powers.  First of all, he would have battle armor (strong, but not indestructible).  With all the Japanese Anime I watched to that point, I loved shows that dealt with heroes in cool armored battlesuits (i.e. Robotech, Mobile Suit Gundam & The Guyver).  I also gave Epsilon superhuman strength (he can lift up to 20 tons), enhanced senses and a battle staff (the tru'kat) that allows him to fly, teleport and fire rays to stun or destroy.  Sound pretty powerful?  It is, but like I said, Epsilon is not indestructible.  Hit him with a few tank rounds and you'll have a funeral for a Cosmic Protector.  The last thing I wanted was make him as powerful as Superman.  What interest or tension can you create if nothing can hurt your superhero?

     Epsilon made his debut in 1992 in a dorm room at the College of Mt. St. Vincent.  No, I didn't write any stories with him yet.  Epsilon teamed up with a bunch of superheroes in the Marvel Comics role playing game.  His first time out was not very impressive.  Epsilon got his butt kicked by Spiderman's arch-nemesis, The Scorpion.

     After that experience, I scratched out some sample  EPSILON chapters.  It wasn't until a couple years later that I worked out the full story line in my head and started putting it down on paper.  As with Skystreak, I based Epsilon's alter ego quite a bit on myself.  John Ross (aka Skystreak) evolved into Jack Remmler (aka Epsilon).  One of my goals with Jack was not to treat him like many teenage comic book heroes who either totally accept their powers or act like the biggest wimps who become unbelievable as superheroes.  On the other end of the spectrum, I didn't want Jack to be a Peter Parker clone from the early Spiderman days.  The nerdy, social outcast who's a winner with a costume but a loser without one.  I wanted to create a young man many people can identify with.  A guy who's enjoying himself at college, has a good circle of friends and who is passionate about doing the right thing.  One of those people who watches all the bad stuff on the news and says, "If only I could do something about that."

     Well, Jack gets his wish.  But he soon finds out being a hero isn't as easy as it looks in comic books.  Not when he has all kinds of brutality and death quickly shoved in his face.  From the onset, Jack Remmler was not going to be some Mack Bolan or Wolverine-type hero.  A man that can shoot up or hack up the bad guys and kick back with a beer five minutes later.  As with most moral people, the things Jack sees and the stuff he must do to protect innocent people will weigh on him.  To me, this makes a more believable character.

     Once I finished my manuscript, I sent out a load of query letters to publishers and agents.  Like all writers, I wound up with a load of rejection letters.  But I was determined to see EPSILON in print.

     When I moved to Prescott, I was very fortunate to hook up with a critique group who took hold of my manuscript, pointed out what they liked and took a chainsaw to the rest.  This brings me to one of the biggest keys about being a writer . . . learning to take constructive criticism.  You have to want people to tell you the weak parts of your book BEFORE it goes to print.  That way you can improve on it.  That's exactly what happened with EPSILON.  Thanks to the efforts of Tom, Geri, Michele, Vern, Lynn, Ed and Velma, what now lies between the hard and soft covers is 500 times better than that first draft I cranked out on Word Perfect in my mid-20s. Now EPSILON is available for people around the world to enjoy.

     INTERESTING NOTES: When you read EPSILON consider some of the ideas that almost went into this book.  One, Jack Remmler was originally supposed to attend my alma mater, The College of Mt. St. Vincent.  Nothing against The Mount, but after years of reading Marvel Comics, I always asked myself, "Why do every superhero and supervillain have to live in New York City?"  Instead, Jack Remmler was relocated to the small, fictional Keystone College in Philadelphia.  Two, one of Epsilon's primary enemies, Imperium, was originally supposed to be a reptilian alien.  Then I decided he had his hands full upsetting the Great Balance between Good and Evil on his planet.  It also made more sense to make the Dark Legionnaire Imperium (who's powers are similar to Epsilon's) come from Earth, since each planet in our galaxy is a separate battlefield in the war between Good and Evil.