A Bio Sort of Thing

Name: Dane

Age: 34 (sigh) with not much to show for it.

Birthday: Veteran’s Day, 50th anniversary of the Great War’s armistice.

Appearance: I try not to look at myself too much in the mirror.

Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado, an hour south of Denver. Very pretty here, where the plains meet the Rockies.

Major Flaw: Lazy, insecure (that’s two, the latter is worse than the former)

Major Strength: Ability to reason while detached from emotion.

Religion: I label myself an intellectual Christian sympathizer and a skeptical buddhist.

Writing rituals: I journal regularly. You can read my old mess at FreeOpenDiary.com under the name Heliodorus, or you can read my new mess here under ProdigalSon.

Literature influences: In order of their importance: J.D. Sallinger, John Steinbeck, Robert Heinlein, Ernest Hemingway, J.R.R. Tolkien

Favorite Childhood book: I am the Cheese (which is a young-adult book)

Favorite Adult Book: Starship Troopers, by Heinlein. SO much philosophy in that SciFi classic.

Hobbies: I play too many hours on my computer. I don’t mountain bike enough. I love CSI on TV, and NHL Hockey. I miss role-playing games around a table with geeks like me.

Five things I love: Writing a good piece of fiction; making love; mountain biking; the Stanley Cup playoffs; swimming.

Five things I hate: People who can’t be reasoned with. Negative people. Terrorism. Cat pee smell! Asparagus.

Five things I would like to do before I die: Own a kayak. Write a novel. Live in New Mexico. Get a Ph.D. in Classics & Humanities; Not have to work in an office.

Current occupation: Editor for a military contractor on an Air Force contract.

Dream career: Classics & Humanities Professor (in New Mexico).

Other things you should know about me: I need to surround myself with positive and constructive writers. I’m an idiot with money. I’m an avid military history reader (mostly World War 2, some Civil War, some modern, some ancient). I think the greatest culture ever to live on Earth was Republican Rome between the 3rd century BCE and the 1st CE. I’m a fiscal conservative and mostly a social libertarian. I have a dozen cats or more in my house at any given time.