About the Authors

Susan Bush:

From her first computer experience in 1984 - a used Apple I presented by her father after he upgraded to an Apple II - Susan Hussey Bush has been hooked on this amazing (and sometimes frustrating) tool of the modern world. The 1985 purchase of the state of the art IBM XT with an astounding 10 mg hard drive opened the door to database development. That first flat database, Nutshell, showed her that one did not have to be a programmer to develop applications.

Later, she began the search for a relational database that did not require programming skills. Alpha Four, a DOS product, met those requirements. When Alpha Five was released, she moved to the Windows version. After expending considerable effort learning the program and designing on her laptop, it was stolen. The only copy of the database was gone and a serious setback resulted. The good news is that by the time she started over, Alpha Five version 3, with significant improvements over the earlier versions, had been released.

The development of a database for her government bidding company, Liberty Food Marketers Co., then began in earnest - this time with backups! Today, that application contains more than 60 tables and 75 sets. As a non-programmer, Susan has set up 100 saved operations to import, reformat and export data. She has since sold the business to her son, Dave, who continues to use Alpha Five to stay current with the demands of government bidding and to offer customers outstanding service.

Many versions later, she is excited about the latest developments, including the name change to Alpha Anywhere because it so suits the range of desktop, web and mobile applications that are essential to today’s markets.

Susan has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Architectural Design. She brings that training to her application designs and to her books. She lives with her husband, Richard, in Flat Rock, North Carolina. They take great pleasure in their blended family of seven children, eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild, spread across the country. Mike, Liz and Walter Hussey live in the Florida Keys. JR Hussey and his wife, Carin Young, live in Mill Valley, CA. In Oakhurst, New Jersey, Dave Hussey keeps busy with Liberty Food Marketers Co. and acts as fulfillment manager for Liberty Manuals Co. Rick Bush lives in Missouri. His eldest daughter, Hailey, is in Joplin, Missouri and younger daughters, Jordan and Lindsey, are in Pea Ridge, Arkansas. Jordan recently added baby Beckett to the clan. Ross Bush and daughter, Clara, live in Vichy, Missouri. Residing in Fort Smith, Arkansas are Missy, her husband, Jeff Brown and son Jake. Kathleen and Sands Orris and their sons, William and Foster make their home in Cumming, Georgia.

Dr. Peter Wayne

Liberty Manuals is honored to distribute Dr. Wayne's book, Alpha Five: Xbasic for Everyone. One of the foremost authorities on Alpha Five, he has worked with Xbasic since the early days of Alpha Five version 1.

Peter is a gastroenterologist in Yonkers, New York. He has regularly appeared in Castle-Connolly, Westchester Magazine and New York Magazine's "Best Doctors" lists, but we like him for his encyclopedic knowledge of Xbasic and his clear, often humorous, expository style. Both novice and experienced programmers will find nuggets scattered through the volume, which is amply illustrated with code samples. Some reader comments on this book:

I wish I'd had this book when I had to learn Xbasic.
  - Selwyn Rubbins, Alpha Software employee

Can we get him to write something about Access?
   - Bill Geats, Macrosoft

Even a dummy like me can understand it!
   - Gov. Sarah Patent

Best read since "Pride and Prejudice"
   - Anonymous

It doesn't take much to figure out that many spoonfuls of sugar make the medicine go down! We love working with Peter because his writings take a serious subject like programming and lighten it with laughter.

Susan Bush
At her home in the North Carolina mountains.

Hank and Sophie