Biography

So I realize that I should have probably written a lot more for my first post. Rookie mistake, never had a blog before. I've never felt the need to monologue outside of the shower. So here's who I am:

Since I was a child I have always dreamed of being an author. Back then my favorite writers were R.A. Salvatore, Monte Cook and J. R. R. Tolkien, though not for LOTR or the Hobbit. I couldn't finish those. Nope, I loved the Silmarillion and have read it six times. I always felt that the LOTR books were half adventure story, half epic myth and didn't mix well because right in the middle of the action the characters would all sing a song about the First Age or reminisce about the good old days before Numenor sunk beneath the ocean. Meanwhile the Silmarillion knew exactly what it wanted to be; "Finwe begat Feanor, and Feanor beget Maedhros, Maeglor, Celegorm, and the dark twins Caranthir and Curufin..." It was an epic myth, and since I have always loved mythology the Silmarillion is my most read book.

Okay, that was a bit of rambling, I know. I do that. I feel every road deserves a side-path and a corridor. That's why when I get to do some world travelling I am always going down side-streets on the way to my destination. It keeps things more interesting. But eventually you have to get somewhere.

I wanted to be a famous author, but one day I read a book written by a kid my age that had reached the NYT bestseller list. I won't say what it was, except that it was so poorly written I couldn't get past the first page. Because of that I vowed to come up the right way. I started writing short stories and submitting them to literary magazines when I was 16. When I was 18 I finally published my first short story in Golden Visions Magazine, and got paid $3 for it. I was ecstatic. I was a published author!

Every year since then I published another short story in another litmag, slowly working up my bibliography and building up my talent. I've written and published drama, sci-fi, fantasy, alternate history, experimental fiction etc. I try to keep things interesting. In any case, as much I love getting paid $3, $5, $15, $50, slowly working my way towards the triple digits, like being a highwayman, writing short stories is a lot of work for little monetary reward and you can only do it because you love it. Every now and then I got an idea for longer works, and I self-published a novella. I have actually written one more, and am just sitting on, but perhaps that could change...? And over the last two years I have been writing my first novel which I am sending off to literary agents. Fingers crossed.

Aside from writing I have done a few interesting things in my life. When I graduated from Chapman University in 2011 I wasn't ready to be an adult, so I decided to take a year off and teach English in the south of France, in the small city of Béziers for a year. That was a blast. Working on my French with 5-11 year old children who were light years better at it than me. Going down to the Lidl to shop for healthy stuff in bulk. And of course, because it was France and I worked for the government, I got 8 weeks paid vacation, which I got to use to travel across Europe. I managed to visit almost all Western European countries, including the two Irelands, except Portugal, Belgium and Luxembourg. I will have to add some pictures to this blog later. It was a great experience and I got to work on my French until I got to near fluency (you know how you watch athletes from Eastern Europe or Korea and they give interviews in perfect English except with a heavy accent? I imagine that's how I sound in French).

When I came back to California after a year Euro-tripping I asked nationally known political correspondent/urbanist Joel Kotkin for work. For the next two years I helped research for his articles, being the 'behind-the-scenes' guy for him. It was exciting work, and I got to learn a lot about the media, and politics (which I was always interested in), and especially demographics and the design of a city. Don't fall asleep, it's interesting! More than you think. But in any case, for two years I helped cover elections and the news.

As interesting as it was I didn't love it, so I had to leave that job. Now I am back to writing and saving up money for a master's degree in history. So that's who I am. I'm in love with literature, travelling, history, politics, I'm a huge cinema junkie, Francophile, anime (the good ones: FMA, East of Eden, Ghost in the Shell...). My favorite new word is 'otaku,' which is Japanese for a person that is obsessed with a small facet of subculture, which I think describes me perfectly. But perhaps there are more of us out there?