I spent far too long debating whether to write this page in 1st or 3rd person
On one hand, third person sounds more professional – there’s a certain weight behind something like “Mr.Stone is an aspiring author, a creative soul with a flare for the macabre that carries through his works.”
On the other hand I can’t help but cringe at describing myself with any sort of gravitas.
Which means that you get a first person series of ramblings that will have to pass for me trying to introduce myself.
With that, hi. Howdy. Hello.
I like writing, and I will be making it everyone else’s problem
In other words, I want to publish my manuscript.
I’ve got a story or two up my sleeve, and I think its about time that I send them off into the world.
A long time passion
My off-and-on love affair with fiction started sometime around elementary school. Way back when, I would open up PowerPoint, write a little paragraph on one slide, and call that a chapter. I don’t think I ever finished one of those “books” but the idea that I could make my own world -no matter what fresh nonsense was happening around me- was addicting.
I held onto that hobby through middle-school, somehow moving away from PowerPoint and onto pencil and paper. Writing and escapism were already synonyms in young me’s mind, and an after-school writing club only cemented that idea. I’d spend an hour and a half avoiding home sharing stories instead, the teacher would bring cookies.
Most people get weird in highschool. I was no exception, because that was when I discovered fan fiction. No further comments.
Fast forward to college. I didn’t study Literature. or language, or journalism, or any field that focuses on the written word. Instead, I was a nerd and got a degree in engineering. But I never really let go of writing, spending nights, holidays, over-long lunch breaks in over-priced dining halls, hunched over my computer, ignoring homework in favor of playing pretend in those hidden little worlds that only I knew existed.
Now I’m not in school. I wake up, get to the gym if I’m being good, then plug away at my 9-to-5, before hurrying home to have my 45min of free time before I need to get ready to do it all again the next day. And you can bet that I spend that free time make-believing.
Those PowerPoints are long gone, my middle-school notes probably rotted away in a dump, the fanfic need not be mentioned, and I don’t have my college computer anymore.
But I still whip up the occasional story, and its about time I send them out into the world.
A spooky guy in a frankly terrifying world
I don’t write horror, per se. I mostly write fantasy, but I can’t help but make it a little dour. A little twisted. A little uncanny. A little “you doin’ ok there, buddy?”
And I’m sure you could have a long conversation with my therapist about exactly why, but that’s neither here nor there. What is here, is me telling you that you’ll see some classic fantasy tropes in my books, with a bit of a goth-y edge.