Allow Me To Introduce Myself . . . . - WritingForums.com - Writing Forums, Writing Challenges, Critiques and Help for Writers

LensmanZ313 · 11-14-2004, 09:32 AM

My name's Brad Smith. I'm 39--born 25 February 1965 in Ontario, Oregon. White Anglo-Saxon Deist Libertarian Transhumanist SF/Fantasy/Horror fan and writer. As to what I look like, imagine Jerry Doyle (Garibaldi of Babylon-5) with a few extra kilos or so.

I'm a fifth-generation Oregonian, although I've lived in Nebraska and now am in Tennessee; I'm planning on moving west, going back to Oregon someday.

I've been a clerk, a bouncer, a collections agent, short-order cook, theater-tech, a private secuirty guard, served in the Air National Guard, worked in a military surplus store, A liquor store, a video-store clerk, and now work in a warehouse, working the nightshift. I also spent six months or so working for a weekly newspaper, the North Platte Bulletin, which can be read here at www.northplattebulletin.com All those jobs . . . . I'm busy trying to establish myself as a professional, working writer.

I love TV/films, reading (I have over 900 books in my private library), photography, the Internet, the paranormal, the occult, role-playing games, religions, philosophy, history, trivia, conspiracy theories, science, dinosaurs, Asian cinema, anime/manga, Transhumanism, Libertarianism, Deism, Shakespeare, Oregon . . . .

I'm working a novel, I call it "cyberspace opera," called Fortune's Knight Errant. I took my love of space opera, threw in elements of anime/manga, exotic sciences such as nanotechnology and genetic engineering, politics, military history . . . . And put them all together into a good adventure story. It's like Bernard Cornwell's great character, Richard Sharpe--or Horatio Hornblower--meeting the Lensman, Cthulhu, battle meks, synthetic intelligences, Ayn Rand, Nietzsche, and the like.

That's how I eventually ended up here.

I forgot to mention something. I moved to Tennessee because the love of my life, Andrea, lives here. We got married on Halloween (Samhain).

And so . . . .

I hope to meet some friends. Learn some things. And, enjoy life along the way.
_________________

Pawn · 11-14-2004, 11:52 AM

What a fantastic variety of interests. Your tale sounds great - there's nothing I'd like to read more than Richard Sharpe in the far flung future. Welcome to the forum! I hope you stick around.

pgoroncy · 11-14-2004, 02:48 PM

What an interesting introduction. Welcome to the forums!

ghostman · 11-14-2004, 03:06 PM

If I introduced myself the way you did I might be more well-liked in this forum. You write refreshing words. Welcome.

demonic_harmonic · 11-14-2004, 06:42 PM

Quote:

I have over 900 books in my private library

I love you.

Anonymous · 11-14-2004, 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by demonic_harmonic

Quote:

I have over 900 books in my private library

I love you.

LOL

Welcome to the forum.

LensmanZ313 · 11-15-2004, 09:06 AM

Thanks for the words of welcome. I'm looking forward to being very active here . . . .

Aeryn · 11-15-2004, 04:28 PM

Welcome to the forums Brad! =] I love your introduction. =]

What are some of your favorite books in your collection?

LensmanZ313 · 11-16-2004, 10:16 AM

I have a number of books by Robert E. Howard (Soloman Kane is my favorite), along with Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars novels (first three and Mastermind of Mars are my favorites), Leigh Brackett, Edmund Hamilton, Jack Williamson, Lester del Rey, Stanley G. Weinbaum, Eric Frank Russell, the entire Lensman saga by E.E. "Doc" Smith; I really love SF from the 1930s and '40s. James H. Schmitz is another great writer, one I really like.

Michael A. Stackpole is one of my favorite writers and I have many of his books. Simon R. Green's Twilight of the Empire/Deathstalker novels. E.E. Knight's Vampire Earth novels. Mike Resnick's Santiago and Widowmaker trilogy. Alan Dean Foster, Ken Kato, Brian Daley, L. Neil Smith, Roger Zelazny, Walter Jon Williams, Tolkein, Steven Brust, Terry Brooks, H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Bloch, Stephen King, Timothy Zahn, Fritz Lieber . . . .

Dumas' The Three Musketeers and The Man In The Iron Mask.

Bernard Cornwell's Richard Sharpe novels.

I also like Adam Warren's Dirty Pair graphic novels from Dark Horse Comics, along with his Bubblegum Crisis mini-series and his DC Crossworlds one-shot comic.

I have plenty of RPG sourcebooks, including many written by David Pulver. Ken Hite's Suppressed Transmissions are great too.

I love books, I love reading . . . and I love writing too.

Aeryn · 11-16-2004, 03:32 PM

You do have quite a collection! lolol =]

LensmanZ313 · 11-17-2004, 11:28 AM

And it's growing. I have most of my books in storage--can't wait until I get my bookshelves set up--and I'm hitting some of the used bookstores in Chattanooga this weekend. Barnes and Noble, as well.

And, of course, I'll be writing too . . . .

Aeryn · 11-17-2004, 04:23 PM

I wish I had a huge library.

Like from an old movie or something.

kerpoe · 11-18-2004, 12:53 AM

hey ya

LensmanZ313 · 11-18-2004, 10:12 AM

And, I must add Mark Frost's The List of 7 and The Six Messiahs. Great stories with Conan Doyle and Jack Sparks, a mysterious man with many talents--some of them very familiar . . . .