Who me?

I'm a proud Canadian, which basically means I'm secure in a quiet belief that everyone else on earth likes me... except Chile, Afghanistan, and the jealous contigent of America (an admittedly small proportion).

I'll read just about anything, and from just about any genre, though I favour things that are far older than me.

My favourite book, you ask? Dune, by Frank Herbert. The sequels aren't bad, but the original is far and away the best. The newer expansions by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert are of some quality too, but they don't resonate in the same way.

I also enjoy George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, though he is agonizingly slow in writing it. The Count of Monte Cristo, The Lord of the Rings, The Catcher in the Rye, To Kill A Mockingbird, 1984, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, A History of Tom Jones: A Foundling, and David Copperfield are a further selection of books I enjoy and highly recommend, though I'll concede that Dickens and Fielding are not for everyone.

My favourite music, you ask? Well, aren't we a wee nosy? No, don't worry, I'm not offended.

Pink Floyd, Brand New, Radiohead, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Led Zeppelin, Blue Öyster Cult, The Beatles (especially the white album), essentially anything that has rhythm and isn't horrendously over-produced. Really, in true Canadian fashion I suppose, I'll tolerate just about anything, even if I don't actively seek it all out.

As for writing... I'm at work on a few stories right now, though only one is being published here. Everything else I put up here has been finished (or at least off the drawing board) for some time now. It's been a long process to get where I am with Warscape (aforementioned one story), and I definitely don't want to get out of the groove.

I suppose this is where I'm supposed to start inserting quotes from people I admire, or snappy witticisms and terse observations that I particularly appreciate, but I only have one that I think is important enough to share with the universe at large:

Only two things are infinite; the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not too sure about the universe. -close paraphrase of Albert Einstein.

STORIES:

The big one is Warscape. It's my sweeping, grandiose, epic, blah blah blah, (shameless plug) space opera. In total, I think it'll be 1000 chapters, give or take. I've finished Book I, and that covers 126 chapters or so. I took me almost two years to write this draft, but that was only because I rarely wrote. I'm pretty consistent now, and manage anywhere from 5-10 a week, depending on my schedule.

What is Warscape about? Good question. It's the story of a pair of families, blessed (or cursed) with a predisposition for getting into the thick of things. Magic swords, crazy powers, immortal demons, psychotropic fight scenes - everything you love about high fantasy coated with the pyoo-pyoo laser-shooting veneer of deep space. Is it a weird story? Probably. I don't really know. Writing it and reading are two very different things. Is it a good story? That's even tougher to answer. I like it, but I wrote it, so that only makes sense. So read and review if you'd be so kind. Knowing that anonymous strangers care is what writing is all about (sorry, weak joke).

Then there's 999 Reasons Why 3 Is Better Than You, my inexplicably-titled essay on life, the universe, and everything. There's an awful lot of nonsense in there, but apparently some good stuff, too. I don't really know, that's just what people have told me. Give it a try, you just might find something interesting.