PHILO: Pictures From Home

At the outer edge of the galaxy, a great explorer ship with a crew of thousands has crash landed on Philo, a small, bare, uninhabited planet offering scant resources. Unable to rise again or make contact with anyone, the interstellar explorers are forced to become settlers. Given what they have to work with, they are hugely successful.

A thousand years later, their now severely overpopulated planet has developed new concerns. Eighteen-year-old Anika Berlen flees for her life from the dreaded Machtpolis, the arm of their totalitarian government. Her crime? Failure to be adequately productive. She is addicted to the Scenics, holographic pictures of planet Earth brought by the original explorer-settlers. Stirred by these vivid images of her people's long-lost past and her deep desire to experience that lost world first hand, her work suffers, and she is selected for elimination.

Anne Kohl moved to Colorado from California in early 1999. She had no quarrel with her home state, but wished merely to widen her experience. Prior to that move, she earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of California, Davis, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude, elected to Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Beta Kappa. Anne later received a Master's Degree in Social Welfare from the University of California at Berkeley. Armed with these credentials, she aims to warp time and stretch distance, dragging her readers along with her.

Long intrigued by the creativity and imaginative ideas found in science fiction, Anne has incorporated these qualities into her own writing. Formerly a Realtor, a Psychiatric Social Worker, and a Programmer Analyst, she has raised four children, published short stories and sold her original award-winning paintings. This diversity of experience provides a variety of unusual writing perspectives.