Mike Shepherd is the pen name of Mike Moscoe (born 2 August 1947), an American science fiction writer who lives in Vancouver, Washington. He was born to a Navy family and travelled a lot as a child. It was not until high school that he finished a year in the school he started.

Literary career

Born in Philadelphia, Shepherd sold his first published writing to the science fiction magazine Analog. It was a short story called "Summer Hopes, Winter Dreams" and appeared in the March 1991 issue. His short story "A Day's Work on the Moon" was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novelette in 2000. Shepherd has written about one book a year. His first three books, the Lost Millennium series (First Dawn in 1996, Second Fire in 1997, and Lost Days in 1998) had a combined sales of just over 20,000 copies, so his editor suggested that he switch genres, to military science fiction set in the future. His next three books, the Society of Humanity series (The First Casualty in 1999, The Price of Peace in 2000, and They Also Serve in 2001) sold better, at over 10,000 copies each, but not as high as was hoped. To make a fresh start for his next series, his editor suggested that he write under a new pseudonym. His third and ongoing series, published as "Mike Shepherd", covers the exploits of Kris Longknife, a rich young naval officer who struggles to deal with the expectations and reputation of her famous family of military leaders, politicians, and billionaires. The first book, Mutineer, was published in 2004 to greater success than his previous books. In a review for Tor.com, Liz Bourke described the series as "pure fluff" of the good kind, that is, intellectually lightweight but "entertainingly sticky, full of implausible successes, assassins, fleet actions and daredevil do-or-die gallantry". His contract with Ace Books expired in 2016, ending a 2 decade relationship, and in 2017, he founded his own independent publisher, KL & MM Books, to continue publishing his works, especially the Society of Humanity fictional universe works.

List of works

Lost Millennium

written as Mike Moscoe

Society of Humanity universe

Jump Universe books

First trilogy written as Mike Moscoe, originally referred to as "The Ray Longknife books", renamed in 2012 to "Jump Universe books" and republished under the name Mike Shepherd.

Kris Longknife books

Written as Mike Shepherd

Vicky Peterwald books

Written as Mike Shepherd

Sandy Santiago books

Written as Mike Shepherd

Longknives books

Works in others' series

Non-series books

Businesses

In 2017, Mike Shepherd established his own independent publisher, KL & MM Books.