I suppose this is where I'm supposed to talk about myself, laud my past successes. I suppose I could do that, but I don't have any past successes. One ninth grade schoolmate wrote that I should keep my face off the Post Office wall. I did manage to do that. So far. At least as well as I know. I avoid the Post Office. Other than that, I've managed to build a string of past failures that are educational to the younger generations. Of course, I shan't be listing those here.

My interest in writing sparked when I read a short story my brother wrote. I used to try to imitate him, try to out-do him. Younger brothers do that. He retains a passion that involves writing. But, this is not his bio. Go get your own!

He wrote a short story. I tried writing a novel. At ninth grade with no idea what it takes to write a novel, I managed thirty handwritten pages. The genre was Science Fiction. I later wrote a post-apocalyptic short story that managed to be published in my High School literary magazine. Of course, they were suffering for content. I don't think any legible entry was denied.

I tried turning that story into a novel, but for want of skills I only made it as far as the short story. Still, I've developed a gift for oral story telling that sometimes extends to writing. I've tried to get a better idea of what it takes to write a novel. It's still a novel experience for me, which you can probably tell by my latest blog entries. I'm using a fairly regimented approach. Just like any artist, I'm starting with paint-by-numbers.

Writing Efforts

There have been three novel projects in my wake. The first remains unnamed, a Fantasy story that blended in elements of various Dungeons and Dragons campaigns I wrote and refereed in my 20s. It sat on the shelf for a while, then some other author wrote an entire series of novels that had the same fundamental idea. A sort of retelling of Connecticut Yankee, though with ultra-tech thrust back into a fantasy setting. Mine is distinguishable, and I'll try to get back to it one day.

I took a break from novel writing to focus on a Lexicon game. This led to Macropedia Terradoma, Imperim Edition, which was a collaborative effort. I've used background material I wrote from that effort in my subsequent novel efforts in that milieu.

Imbroglio grew from events of people around me in 2003 and 2004, and germinated for five years. I used it in NaNoWriMo 2008. That book stalled at 35,000 words because of problems in the plot.

Scintilla built on that failure. David Bophendze of Imbroglio is back in a minor role, trying to tie up a few loose ends. This gave me a chance to play around with the Bafiktuy Intelligence Directive, which I created as a “when you needed to mess with the protagonist, enter the BID” plot device. This book was plotted in the Summer and Fall of 2010 and helped me win NaNoWriMo 2010.

Technical Stuff

I'm a knowledge hacker. That is, I love learning, exploring and picking things apart. I tinker. So, I have a rather eclectic background. Some of this site retains that background. I'm a Unix person, preferring Linux. I've developed a wide range of applications, tending to have a web interface. I've gotten to the point where I'm not in the mood to do much programming now. I still tinker and keep my skills up, but nothing crazy.

My knowledge hacking led me to get a Juris Doctorate at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. I read widely in history and politics, religion and other humanities. Some of that comes out in Scintilla.