Edmond Manning has been writing for many, many years.

After graduating from Northern Illinois University (NIU) with an English Education degree (graduated Valedictorian from the University Honors Program), Manning pursued and completed a Masters of Science within the field of Instructional Technology. These two curious backgrounds allowed for practicing a unique blend of creative and technical writing, skills that were enhanced over a 22+ year as an e-learning consultant.

During those consulting years, Manning feverishly wrote fiction, completed three novels, and yet never pursued publication because the writing simply didn’t meet his high standards. Something was missing: a spark. Looking back, Manning prefers to believe that he was living out Malcolm Gladwell’s maxim: you’ve got to ply your craft for 10,000 hours before you get good. Yes, that would be the preferred belief.

In 2008, Manning experimented with writing a new type of fiction, and ended up with his first “kinging” novel, published in serial format on a free website. (The original novel has been removed from that site.) The intense reaction from hundreds of readers around the globe suggested to Manning that something had indeed changed, so he decided to create a new novel based off these wild, frothy characters.

The result is King Perry.

Enjoy.

Edmond Manning was raised as Ted Manning, one of four children in Joseph and Margaret Manning’s home in a small farm town in the north west corner of Illinois. In high school, his father was also his high school English and Latin teacher, greatly influencing his love of books. His mother worked in a bank and was a voracious reader herself, also greatly influencing Manning’s love for novels.

Both parents read to the four young children before bedtime on a regular basis and therefore must certainly be blamed for hundreds of hours spent reading in bed long after a reasonable curfew. Yes, they must be blamed.

Manning attended Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois and pursued his love of words with an English Education degree, voluntarily and sadistically enrolling in classes devoted to Chaucer and Dickens, both in the same semester. During his graduate school days, he came out of the closet and lived as openly as an advocate for GLBT issues.

Charmed by the lakes and local accent, Manning moved to Minneapolis in 1995, where he currently resides with a yard monster.