Paul Chow grew up in the family of a government railroad manager. Throughout his childhood, his family moved with his father's career, from one railroad line to another. In 1937, Japan invaded China, shattering the life of this family. His mother, with four children in tow, ran for their lives, keeping barely one step ahead of the advancing enemy forces. With WWII on the doorsteps, Chow quit high school to join the Allied Forces in Burma to fight the invading Japanese, which by that time had occupied most of Southeast Asia. After the war, he took up fishing. But after spending nine years at sea, fisherman's life offered little challenge to him. In 1955, he bought a Chinese sailing junk without any motor and sailed across the Pacific Ocean with five of his friends. At the age of 29, having been through fourteen different schools and yet no high school diploma to speak of, he enrolled in a junior college in San Francisco. After a bachelor's degree from the University of California at Berkeley he went on to obtain a PhD from Northwestern University. For the next 29 years he taught physics and astronomy in universities and did consulting in computer industry. Since retirement from California State University at Northridge in 1994, Chow has devoted full time to writing. His published work includes two novels, MOISHE FANTASY and IT'S JUST A FLY, and a journal of his Pacific crossing saga, THE JUNK THAT CHALLENGED THE YACHTS.