M. J. Rusch graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1992 with a Journalism degree. He lives with his wife, Anne, a 3rd grade teacher, in Madison, Wisconsin. He works in marketing and public relations for the City of Madison. He is currently finishing up a sequel to Dome, entitled DOME: Project Hideaway.

By the Author:
One of my most favourite forms of entertainment is a good story. Good fiction is the kind that makes the reader personally involved with characters and their situations to the point the reader feels their emotion to the same degree.

A good story is one where the reader embarks on an emotional journey with its characters and actually "feels" as they do. A good story sucks the reader into another dimension of existence and safely forces him/her to actually "feel" without fear of danger, lasting sadness, or regret. I find myself most drawn to stories laced with a darker, tragic side.

This is not because I'm a brooder or thrive on misery or tales of woe. But rather, because it keeps the story realistic. It makes the flow of emotion through a story constant. It makes you latch onto and keeps you empathising with the characters. It makes you want to continue through a story without interruption, without ever putting it down. It makes "reading" not such a chore. DOME is my first serious attempt to tell a good, emotionally- involved, high-energy story. One that immediately hooks the reader into another world and doesn't allow release until its very end.

DOME is a nightmare I had one evening. It was one of those nightmares where you wake up in the middle of the night with your body and sheets drenched in sweat. It was one in which even after you're awake, you are still not convinced that you've actually escaped from the harsh dream reality. Where you question yourself as to whether the reality you woke up to is actually the dream.

I dwelt on this dream for an entire day. I thought about the people I had encountered and the extreme emotions they felt. Like all dreams, by the time I went to sleep the next night, it had all but completely faded away.

Almost exactly one year later, I had the same dream, with the same amount of vividness and intensity. In the short time I was asleep, both times, I followed these characters. I felt their pain, fear, and loss. I felt their adrenaline and emotion to the point my heart felt as if it would burst from my chest.

It was then, after I experienced this all for the second time, that I felt compelled to write it down…