Hello, world

A quick introduction, as some famous dude said something about brevity and wit and souls, and I tend to agree with him.

I write speculative fiction, mostly sci-fi at present. Unpublished but pretty close to having a book ready to start shopping around to agents, so I expect to be in the query trenches soon.

I read voraciously, about 50-70 books/year. About 75% sci-fi and fantasy, with some other stuff mixed in. Favorites in the past year or two include The Murderbot Diaries, most of John Scalzi's work, 'Salem's Lot, and Cloud Atlas.

I've been writing most of my life, but took a break from seriously working on anything for about 15 years while pursuing an acting career. Now hyperfocused on getting a complete novel out into the world, hopefully to be followed by many more.

I do beta read, and I enjoy critiquing and exchanging thoughts on work. I've done a lot of it over the years, and I look forward to exploring this new forum in which to do so. And yes, I'm also hoping I'll find some people here who will be able to help me hone my own work.

My hobbies include hiking and Krav Maga, though I'm sadly rusty on the latter at the moment. Too much time spent hammering the latest novel into shape--but so it goes. I have, alas, not figured out how to fit everything I'd like to do into 24 hours/day.

Thanks, all. And thanks for the info, regdog. Already checked out the Newbie Guide, Forum Rules, and a fair number of stickies, though it will take me some time to work my way through all of them. (Then again, I doubt I'll have the need to read the ones in forums I won't be active in, so that makes it a bit more manageable. )

Thanks, Fullon_v4.0. Yes, more hours would be lovely. As the timing of this post indicates. Blast, one of these days I'm going to learn not to start a critique at ten at night.

Maybe.

daughterofeve said:

Hey there!
I'm new as well, also working on a SF novel. I can definitely relate to the struggle of fitting everything into a day. I'm supposed to work on my writing, pursue an education, exercise, sleep, and have a normal social life in 24 hours? Please.
I hope you find everything you're looking for on this forum!

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Thank you, oh Koala One! The same to you.

I like your location, incidentally.

Gerald_Johanssen said:

Welcome to AW Starsknight



I look forward to seeing some of your work on here and hopefully when the time comes you can help me out with mine. I've actually heard of Krav Maga. I have a friend who was very involved with it a few years ago. Although, that is the extent of my knowledge on it.

Hope you find your way around easily enough.

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Thanks, Gerald, and welcome yourself! Funny, I didn't think to elaborate above. So for anyone who's curious, Krav Maga is an Israeli martial art focused on practical self-defense, and borrows extensively from a variety of martial arts and fighting techniques. It's used by the Israeli military and a fair number of law enforcement agencies; it's also increasingly used as a basis for Hollywood hand-to-hand combat choreography.

Blast, just writing about it makes me miss it. Ah, well. Hopefully I'll be back to it come December.

I'll look forward to seeing you around the forums!

Alan Aspie said:

Wellcome!




Maybe we can have some day a nice talk about what books fit to self defence in wilderness?

I like to put my soft cover Bibble inside my coat in front of my right hand elbow so I can use it in some elbow tecniques. ("Let's just beat them with the Bibble, you know.")

And Hellers Catch 22 is a perfect choice to trickery & bluff.

And...

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@Alan Aspie, Ha! Not sure how I missed your post earlier, but that's a marvelous idea!

CameronJohnston said:

Welcome to AW! I wish you luck finishing off the novel and landing an agent.

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Thank you! Congrats on The Traitor God!

Thanks, Silver Lining! (I like your moniker, btw.)

I'm currently working on version sixteen-hundred-and-shoot-me-now-three of my query (okay, it's not actually that bad, but I have well over fifty pages' worth of scrapped possibilities). I think I'm finally beginning to get to the point where I'll be seeking some outside eyes to shred it to bits and help me rebuild. (Better. Stronger. Faster.) So yes, you may be seeing me over in QLH soon.

Alan - I started reading The Art of War, but had too many other things on my plate and left off fairly early on. I should give it another look; just finished a book which makes several references to it (Arena, Holly Jennings), and it'd be nice just to be familiar with the book to pick up on such things. Not to mention that I've heard it's quite interesting in its own right.

Zan75 - Thanks!