Besides being, effectively, a lifetime (self-professed) computer “nerd”, and, now, aspiring author, I’ve got a couple of other things I am interested in.
Reading
I am an avid and voracious reader, mostly of science fiction and fantasy. [Aside from “Tales From the Pub”, most of what I’ve written isn’t in those genres, which is a puzzle even to myself.] In 2019 or so, my “to be read” pile was large enough that I discovered I had started to double-buy some new books. [“This is new, isn’t it? I know I haven’t read it, and I don’t think I already have it, so I’d better buy it.”] At that point, I realized I needed to start keeping track of what I did and didn’t have and had and hadn’t read. After going through and cataloging all of just my paperback collection (since many of my hardcovers are still in storage and I have much fewer of them), I wound up with the staggering result of discovering I own well over 2,000 paperback books – almost all of which I’ve already read at least once.
So, suffice it to say – I really like to read.
Who’s Your “Favorite” Author?
I’ve never been comfortable answering that question because I don’t have a single favorite of anything and even among who I especially like, the answer can change over time. For some of my favored authors, though… These are in no particular order, by the way.
[Note – I’m not shilling for them and I doubt any of them know I exist. I just happen to like their work.]
L. E. Modesitt, Jr. – web site
Robert A. Heinlein (deceased)
David Weber – web site
Jack L. Chalker (deceased)
Guy Gavriel Kay – web site
Steven Brust – web site
I’ll also admit that, some of these are authors I’ve read most recently, but not all of them. When you’ve got a physical library of over 2,000 books – and growing – it’s really hard to pick and choose.
Anime / Manga
I’ve been a fan of Japanese animation (anime) and comic books (manga) for an extremely long time – since my teens, easily. I was a long-time fan of reading comic books (a hobby my mother defended, pointing out to others that I wasn’t just looking at the pictures, i was actually reading the words), so discovering the wonderful world of Japanese comics was an easy thing to do. These days, I no longer collect comic books or manga, although I do still watch a lot of (perhaps too much?) anime.
Board Games
For a very long time, I played quite a few different table-top war games (the sort which came with hex-based maps and punch-out cardboard counter sheets), but over time, the people I played with weren’t as accessible as they had been. While I have played a six-player game [Titan, by Avalon Hill – back in “the day”] solo (trying to keep straight what all of the different players, on their own turns, were trying to achieve was a fun mental puzzle so long as I didn’t have much else on my mind), it’s not something that’s as fun long-term. Also, as a single parent, kids tend to dominate one’s free time for many many years.
Computer Games and General Computer “Stuff”
Given my life-long background with computers, there’s no way I could ignore this. It has, though, moved much more into the background these days. Also, regarding gaming, I’ve never enjoyed just about any sort of fast-paced, reflex-reaction-heavy, game. So FPS shooters and RTS games are definitely not my thing. I have, in the past, played a couple of MMOs, but in general, I prefer turn-based strategy and puzzle-ish sorts of games (not endless “match-3!” stuff, though).
