*Sing it to the tune of "It's My Prerogative." It's fun! Hey, remember back when Bobby Brown wasn't known for being in one of the freakiest car wrecks of a marriage that our celebrity-starved culture has seen? (Good news, ladies: he's back on the market!)

Anyway, I've listed some bios from past works, both tongue-in-cheek and formal PR filler. Possibly the least exciting part of this site.

Also, quick bit of context: I used to go by my middle name with some of my past work, which is why you may see me credited as "Andrew Bates".

"About the Author" Blurbs

These are from the "About the Author" end notes of my novels. Clearly, I put a lot of time into 'em.

Charles Andrew Bates was raised by monkeys on the frozen tundra of Wisconsin.

---

Charles Andrew Bates quit a promising career as an astronaut to follow his life-long dream wrangling penguins in the Antarctic.

---

Charles Andrew Bates spends his time wandering the contiguous United States. He visits towns, befriends the locals and rights wrongs before moving on down the road.

---

Charles Andrew Bates is a professional writer, illustrator and procrastinator.

Formal Biography

Charles Andrew Bates has pursued an eclectic career in writing and illustration spanning a variety of entertainment media including television, publishing, comics, Internet entertainment, and roleplaying games.

He began at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, producing a comic strip for The Daily Cardinal student newspaper. This strip was later self-published as Buy This Book or the Vulture Gets It. After graduation, a job at an international comics and hobby games distributor brought Bates in contact with White Wolf, an Atlanta-based publisher where he secured a sales position.

One year later, Bates lobbied successfully to helm the development of a new intellectual property. The science fiction game Trinity launched 10 months later as the first release of the Trinity Universe action-adventure setting. Bates was co-designer on the additional two expansions: the superhero game Aberrant and the pulp game Adventure.

He also made significant content and design contributions to White Wolf's other published settings, including the popular modern horror setting Vampire: The Masquerade. During his off hours, Bates helped his father design and publish Action Baseball, an innovative card game that emulates actual baseball strategy.

After four years, Bates left to pursue full-time freelance creative design in Los Angeles. As an illustrator, he served as storyboard artist for multiple episodes of the hit CBS crime drama, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. He also supplied over 200 illustrations and character designs for game publishers including White Wolf and Wizards of the Coast (maker of the popular Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon and Dungeons & Dragons games).

His writing pursuits involved the publication of The Year of the Scarab modern horror trilogy for White Wolf. Released in 2001, the series was comprised of Heralds of the Storm, Lay Down With Lions, and Land of the Dead. Subsequently, Bates wrote the novel Dark Ages: Cappadocian, the third installment White Wolf's Dark Ages historical horror series. Continued association with White Wolf brought a return to the fold full-time as managing editor of the company's Sword & Sorcery Studios fantasy imprint. He spent two years overseeing a half-dozen publishing lines, including games based on the hugely popular EverQuest and World of Warcraft MMOGs.

A chance meeting with a friend offered a new direction and a final farewell to his long career with White Wolf. For the past five years, Bates has applied his experience in both the creative and management worlds in a marketing role at the Cartoon Network.