Curious by Design
My journey of invention, imagination, and the occasional malfunctioning animatronic.
From an untethered childhood to designing the world’s most complex theme park attractions, I’ve spent a lifetime exploring the crossroads of art and engineering. Along the way, I’ve built companies, created rides, composed music, coded operating systems, and mentored thousands of writers.
Whether you’re a theme park fan, an aspiring author, or just someone with a lifelong case of “how does that work?”, this book offers insight, inspiration, and a few laugh-out-loud detours.
Welcome
I’m Steve Alcorn, entrepreneur, author and teacher. This site offers some insights into my occupation, avocations, and history. Welcome!
I’ve always been entrepreneurial, and even as a kid had companies that sold comics, did letterpress printing, made electronic guitar fuzz boxes and operated a sound studio.
In 1978 I married my high school sweetheart, Linda McBride, and in 1991 we had a daughter Dani.
In 1982 I joined Walt Disney Imagineering (then known as WED Enterprises) as a consultant, where I worked on the electronic systems for Epcot Center’s American Adventure, the park-wide monitoring system, and Journey Into Imagination, where I became WED’s first systems engineer.
I have a passion for fine dining and sharing great wines with friends.
In 1986 I founded Alcorn McBride, the company that makes the audio/video players and control systems used in nearly all of the world’s theme parks.
In 2001 I founded Writing Academy, where I’ve helped more than 100,000 aspiring writers become authors.
Since 2024 I’ve been working on BrainStream Ltd., a Canadian Tech startup for AI Education, where I am the CEO.
I’ve written 27 books, both fiction and non-fiction.
