When I discovered the Internet, I was immediately hooked. I'm a full-out computer geek, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. It pays well, too, if your luck holds. I got lucky and got a job working as a contractor for IBM, doing tech support. As it turned out, I was good at it.

Somewhere in there I changed ISPs. The one I was on had been the only one available for a while, to give you an idea of how long ago this is. I'd had a webpage before-- two, actually. They weren't much, but I was proud of them. Of course, this is back when having a webpage was rare, even when it was something like http://home1.gte.net/catalyst. You could put something like that on a professional business card and people would go "Ooooooh. He has a Web Page." Even if it was just a page. Back then, people who had their own domain were Geek Gods. Lots of people had access to the webspace, but nobody had the slightest idea what to do with it.

Neither did I, but I didn't let it stop me.

When I got the new website, I decided I wanted to do something new. I had always had a section on my site with Pagan Links, but I wanted to have a section on being a Wiccan. So I wrote the piece "Left of Center: A Message to the Wiccan Community.". ("Left of Center" was actually just the name of the site. But at the time, it was the only actual content on the site, so it just kinda flowed in there.)

When I sent out a notice of my change in e-mail and website to my entire address book, it included the e-mail address for Fritz Jung of The Witches' Voice. He asked to run the essay on his site. I was floored; I didn't particularly expect anyone to like it. And I started getting e-mail from people who liked what I had to say.

So I wrote another. "A Good Look In The Pagan Mirror" was me attempting to address the less savory aspects of the Pagan Community. It was also republished on Witchvox, but what really went over well was the companion piece, "You Might Be Giving Pagans a Bad Name If...". I've gotten more responses to that piece than any I've done since, though the Samhain Poem came close.

I found my Voice.

I started writing regularly, moving to another ISP, where I renamed the site "Catalyst's Point" and redesigned it from the ground up. Not long after, I decided to get my own domain. "www.catalystspoint.org" didn't have the right look to it-- so I dropped the apostrophe and the "s" and arrived at "www.catalystpoint.org." I like it better as "Catalyst Point" anyway. It launched on July 6, 1999.

Reformatting the website-- including formatting fifty-three essays (and two sidebars) into a standard format-- turned out to be quite a glance back over five years of writing, web design, activism, and actual life. And even if it weren't, rewriting this bio would have made sure the job got done.

I now live in Richmond, Virginia with my wife, Sunny Simmons Steincamp (Also known as Amarisse), and five stepchildren, Tish, Dustin, Evan, Karleigh, and Trevor.

Click the image for a larger photo.

From our wedding at Virginia Beach, November 20, 2002.
Left to Right: Evan, Sunny (Amarisse), Tish, Cather (Catalyst),
Karleigh (Equiny), Trevor, and Dustin.