About Me
Queer, Non-binary, very Trans-friendly, hate nazis. Just to be clear.
Happily married, two cats and a lovely garden. I like coffee. A lot.
Been a martial artist for over 40 years, and over half of those have been spent teaching Historical European martial arts, specializing but not limited to swordplay.
I've worked a ton of jobs. Sheet music sales, specializing in early and folk music. Book store clerk. Graveyards at 7-11. Security guard and bouncer. Landscaper. Welder and Bridgeman. Network admin. Tech support. Supply chain specialist for a green energy company. Online board game sales and shipping/receiving. Professional, full-time teacher of swordplay. Owner/Operator of martial arts school. Paid bad-guy with a gun and bombs, for police training. Also did some babysitting when I was a kid, and crushed boxes in the back of a store. Used to sweep the parking lot of a burger joint in exchange for food.
I play, poorly, guitar, doumbek, and bagpipes.
I've been an avid reader of scifi and fantasy since I was a kid. My dad and his brother were fans, and encouraged me to read Dune when I was 10...hard to go back after that. Their dad was an inventor, and read me Scientific American articles before I could put the letters into words. I always remember my mom encouraging me to be artistic, and her dad loved to tell me stories...and always had a loaded bookshelf that I loved to peruse.
I once read the entire contents of a large public library, over two years. Started at one end, and took out the maximum of 14 books a week. To be clear, I skipped anything that looked redundant. I regret every book or magazine that I've ever had to give up or throw out, because I seem to always remember some part of the years later that I want to reference.
My writing will always have an agenda. I believe that the best and strongest path forward for humanity is diversity, but that our cultural systems always work to crush that. The resulting conflict drives me to find and tell stories.
Welcome to my blog.