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Here's a selection of some writing I've done over the years -- poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. This page is definitely under construction, and I'll add stuff as I'm ready to have it seen. :>
Like most writers, I'm also a reader. Ever since I discovered books, well before first grade, I've been a reader. I think I picked it up from my mother, whose ability to loose herself in a book is almost as notable as mine. :)
My tastes are broad. My favorite fiction tends to be at least remotely related to science fiction or fantasy. Since almost anything can be related to SF, though, this doesn't restrict things much. :) The truth is that I'm not so much an SF fan as a fan of good, imaginative, plot-driven writing, and much of the best fiction this century has been SF.
The other "genre" writers you'll find well represented among my favorites are mystery writers, from the first of them all to some writing actively today.
I also love poetry, and have favorite poets from all sorts of time periods and places. As you might have noticed, my tastes tend towards representational art, stories with plots, and poetry that scans. Even so, there are twentieth-century poets I like, including at least one American....
My favorite type of poetry is narrative, though, and I love ancient heroic narratives. I also prefer to read poetry in its original language, albeit in some cases with a dictionary and prose translation handy. :) While I do poetic translations, even a truly good poetic translation of a great poem isn't the same poem. At best it's a derivative work of art based on the original.
I've got a few favorite literary sites on the web. For those who love the medieval world, one of the best sites on the 'Net is the Legends site. It contains a rich set of resources and links to the sources, enough to keep a lover of Beowulf, King Arthur and Robin Hood rooting around happily for hours or days.
The Luminarium focuses on English literature, medieval through the 17th century. It has a superb on-line collection. If you love Chaucer, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, or other English writers before the 1700s, visit this site!
O'Conner's American Literature Online has got to be the most exhaustive index of American Literature Resources I've ever come across. If you want to find information on almost any American writer from European conquest to today, start here.
For those who read German literature in German, the Deutsche Literatur im Internet collection at the University of Virginia is a fine resource. It covers German literature from its beginnings through the twentieth century, and has a wealth of links to other sites.
Project Gutenberg could have grown only on the Internet, although founder Michael Hart first came up with the idea in 1971. Its aim is to put the world's literature in machine-readable format, putting it on-line and in the public domain where possible, making it available for as many uses as others can dream up.
A look at the Project Gutenberg web site shows that Michael, his trusty minions, and the Project Gutenberg volunteers are well on their way.
I'm a long time fan of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and other speculative writing and art, although I didn't hook up with other fans in an organized fashion until I happened across the old GEnie Science Fiction & Fantasy Roundtable (SFRT). A lot of today's fans trace their involvement in the fan community (or "fandom", as it is called by fans) to the SFRT.
Unfortunately GEnie, which in the early 1990s was the second largest on-line service in the world, dwindled from neglect as the Internet became increasingly popular. In 1996 General Electric sold it to a fly-by-night outfit called Youvelle, which was associated with a discount long-distance service named IDT. GEnie finally died on December 31, 1999 of Y2K incompatibilities that its current owner didn't feel were worth fixing. (As I understand it, a web version of GEnie still exists, but no one I know who was on the old GEnie is using it.)
Fortunately the SFRT didn't die with it. Some years ago the SFRT community started moving off of GEnie and onto the Internet. Most of it landed in two places: sff.net and dm.net.
SFF.net is managed by former SFRT sysop and SF writer Jim Macdonald, who founded SFF.net together with SFRT denizen and fan Jeffry Dwight. It focuses on science fiction, fantasy, and other "genre" fiction such as romance, mystery, and horror. In addition to web pages, the SFF.net site includes a private news server, internet relay chat (IRC) server, and other facilities, most of them open to non-members.
I'm a charter member of SFF.net and read a number of newsgroups on the news server almost daily, although I post less frequently. I have a rather moribund personal newsgroup there, as well.
SFF.net is a wonderful service to the SF&F community, and is well worth your support, both by participating and by joining and paying a monthly fee. The basic monthly account includes a POP mailbox, a generous amount of space for a web page, and access to various private areas on the news server.
DM.net, or Dueling Modems, gained its name from a topic on the old GEnie SFRT, a topic to which angry and off-topic messages were moved. It is managed by another former SFRT sysop, Nic Grabien. Nic was the last sysop of the SFRT before it folded, and as sysop since late 1993, the longest lived of all of the SFRT sysops. He and his team have a copyright on the term SFRT, and host the DM daughter site sfrt.com. A selection of the Dueling Modem BBS sites is open to the public, but you must join to get access to most of it.
I'm not currently active on Dueling Modems, but that's because I simply don't have time to keep up with it, and was already on SFF.net. Nic is a superb sysop by all accounts and the Dueling Modems site is just as worthy of your support as is SFF.net.
Here are links to a few other web pages about science fiction and fantasy that I like and use:
Finally, a few suggestions on where to obtain all these books. :)
In this day of huge chain bookstores and on-line giants that sell more and more copies of fewer and fewer books, I cherish and support the independent booksellers who are in this business because they love books and reading. Such booksellers are the mainstays of new writers and small independent presses. While the chains stock a gazillion copies of the lastest best sellers, and therefore often have no room for earlier books or less wildly popular books, the independent bookstores maintain backlists of books that may not be the newest story out there, but are still worth reading.
They are all too few of these booksellers left. Since I have a vested personal interest in their continued existence, I want to mention a few. :)
My favorite bookstore (off-line and on) is Powell's Bookstore in Portland, Oregon. It stocks both new and used books, and has a rare book room second to none in the world. In the mid-1990s Powell's was also the world's largest bookstore; although a few bookstores had larger volumes of sales, none stocked as many books.
Powell's is a rarity -- a wildly successful and profitable independent bookstore run by people who genuinely love books and reading. Powell's stocks lots of good books you can't find anywhere else, or can find only via a special order and long wait. You can get popular fiction at Powell's, but you can also find books on a range of subjects that don't get covered by the large publishing houses and large bookstores. The owner and employees of Powell's are themselves voracious readers, and you can usually find a clerk who can help you find a good book on almost any topic.
A few years ago, when I was doing research for a paper, I needed to find a rather rare book first published in the 1930s. Interlibrary loan failed me, and as a last resort I contacted Powell's to ask them to do a rare book search. They had two copies on their shelf. Since then, I've started at Powell's when trying to locate a book, instead of calling them only when Interlibrary Loan fails. :)
While no bookstore equals Powell's, a few other bookstores I love and visit when I'm in the vicinity are:
One final note -- unlike Amazon and Barnes and Noble through their "associates" programs, none of these bookstores is paying me to get you to buy their books. These recommendations were totally unsolicited; I really do like the stores I mention and am telling you about them because of that. Although I doubt that any of these bookstores particularly minds me recommending them either.... ;>
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Last modified on Thursday, October 23, 2008 at 8:40 AM PDT.