authors?

Vajradhara

Vajradhara

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Namaste all,

there seems to be a disporportionate amount of authors on this site... that would probably be a "good thing" :)

so... the question is...

how many of you consider yourself to be either authors or aspiring authors?

as a general opener, what was it (if it can be codified) that persuaded you that writing was your path?
 
Vajradhara said:
Namaste all,

there seems to be a disporportionate amount of authors on this site... that would probably be a "good thing" :)

so... the question is...

how many of you consider yourself to be either authors or aspiring authors?

as a general opener, what was it (if it can be codified) that persuaded you that writing was your path?
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Aspiring.

I started writing in high school. I realized that I was a good writer when my teacher gave me an A+ (remember those?) on a Romeo and Juliet paper.

And then reading Nabokov, especially Lolita, in college solidified my desire to write fiction.

CS Lewis also had a significant effect on my desire to write.
 
Not if I can help it. I have too many writing things to do at work :) Oh yea, and editing newsletters.

I tend to fall into writing tasks - e.g. my latest "write an abstract for a paper to be presented in March. No, I don't know what we should present - figure it out". I've done monthly columns for trade press before (computer reviews), and a couple of requested articles. But am I an author? Nope. I write when I need to, which tends to be often as the job requires it.

... Bruce (I may write, but I'm not an author)G
 
I've got a column in my church's District newsletter that appears every other month, and one in my local newpaper that appears every week. Then there is the book that I am hawking like a medicine show geek. And I am a mathematician for a living.
 
I'm an aspiring novelist - my main interest is in communcatnig ideas. :)
 
I'm a professional writer--sixty-something novels published, mostly science fiction or military technothrillers, and one non-fiction on magic and science on the way. (I just finished the ms. two days ago. Hurrah!)

I always wanted to be a writer--specifically of science fiction, and did the usual bit as a teenager of papering a wall of my bedroom with rejection letters. Later, after a hitch in the military, I actually started off as an illustrator, doing drawings and cover paintings in the role-playing game industry.

Eventually, one of my art clients, a gaming company in Chicago, decided to begin publishing a line of novels set in one of their SF universes, and they asked me to write the first three. (I'd done lesser pieces of writing for them and others in various game products.) I used those and three more I did for them later to attract the notice of a New York publisher and an agent, and the rest, as they say, is history . . . and a VERY great deal of typing!
 
WHKeith said:
I'm a professional writer--sixty-something novels published, mostly science fiction or military technothrillers, and one non-fiction on magic and science on the way. (I just finished the ms. two days ago. Hurrah!)

I always wanted to be a writer--specifically of science fiction, and did the usual bit as a teenager of papering a wall of my bedroom with rejection letters. Later, after a hitch in the military, I actually started off as an illustrator, doing drawings and cover paintings in the role-playing game industry.

Eventually, one of my art clients, a gaming company in Chicago, decided to begin publishing a line of novels set in one of their SF universes, and they asked me to write the first three. (I'd done lesser pieces of writing for them and others in various game products.) I used those and three more I did for them later to attract the notice of a New York publisher and an agent, and the rest, as they say, is history . . . and a VERY great deal of typing!
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would that be FASA?

and would that line be ShadowRun?
 
Yes, that would be FASA.

The game, however, was BattleTech; I wrote the first three novels of that series. The other three were two Doctor Who plot-your-own books, and a novel set in FASA's TOG universe. Never did anything in Shadowrun.
 
WHKeith said:
Yes, that would be FASA.

The game, however, was BattleTech; I wrote the first three novels of that series. The other three were two Doctor Who plot-your-own books, and a novel set in FASA's TOG universe. Never did anything in Shadowrun.
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well... what a small world!

i'm in the process of trying to acquire many of the rights to the game worlds that FASA created, especially BattleTech and ShadowRun.
 
And I know somebody who is an avid gamer and he used to play Shadowrun (and BattleTech, I believe)! Gotta tell him about you Thursday when I'm scheduled to game with him (and his SO). *note to self...*

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine
 
Ah! A small world-- or galaxy--indeed. When shaking hands with those people, Vajradhara, count your fingers afterward.

Yes, Grayson Carlyle and the Gray Death Legion were my babies. I wrote five BT novels in all.
 
WHKeith said:
Ah! A small world-- or galaxy--indeed. When shaking hands with those people, Vajradhara, count your fingers afterward.

Yes, Grayson Carlyle and the Gray Death Legion were my babies. I wrote five BT novels in all.
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hehe... thank you for the advice.... whenever i play with the wolves, i make darn sure that i'm the shark.
 
Well, I've written and I've been published (some, mostly letters to editors, online book reviews, and an op-ed piece in the Fresno Bee) but I've yet to have anything published that I've been paid for. So, does that make me an author or an aspiring author?

Right now I'm working on a non-fiction book-length project about baby boomers, the times they grew up in and the world they are creating. Or, should I say "we" - I was born in the middle of the baby boom myself, which I suppose explains my interest. This is my first attempt at a project of this length.

Writing is the only thing I'm really good at, so I think I better make something of it.:D

College Student. 'Nuf said.
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I know what you're saying, Phyllis. My last year at university, as I was finishing up my BA, I generated between 150 and 200 pages of written work each semester, including research papers, take-home essay exams, and various and sundry other assignments.
 
Interesting.

I too, am an aspiring writer! I've got loads of ideas and tons of half-done manuscripts, stories, and essays, but I have not been published. Do letters to the editor count? (I hope so!!!)

I am a community planner/researcher, so my days are spent writing, thinking, and reading about public policy issues. My primary projects last year were public education and affordable housing. This year higher education and race relations.

I also read more science fiction last year...hmmm? :p
 
Authors or writers?

Is there a difference between an author and a writer?

Susma Rio Sep
 
Regards to all!

I would guess I am a writer (gauging by grades and continual "pats on the back"), but I have no immediate desire to be an author.

Phyllis, as a college student myself, I can definitely relate!
 
You really weren't kidding when you said there was a disproportionate amount of authors on the site!

Despite my youth (about 10 or 15 years younger than most of you by my guessing) I don't wish to pursue writing as a career, but it is something I pursue in my spare time.

I've always had a "way with words" so to speak (not with good grades but with an actual enjoyment for the subject - I just don't like Shakespeare, but I did get full marks for my essay on "The Crucible"). I have had two things published, one a short story, an ultra-violent allegory of the class war and an article about "gunboat diplomacy".

I enjoy writing, and reading other people's work (because sometimes it's better to read than ploughing through some commercial novel) and I should continue my half-work into the near future. Otherwise that's as far as it goes for me and literature I'm afraid.
 
juantoo3 said:
LittleMissAttitude,

Just curious, what High School did you attend? I graduated from McLane, class of '79.
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Actually, I didn't move to the Valley until I was 21, so I didn't go to high school around here. However, I know quite a few people who attended McLane. I'm not sure any of them were there in '79, though. Also, one of my best friends just did her student teaching there last spring, and also taught a couple of summer school classes there last summer.

By the way, I love your screen name.:)

Edited to add: How did you end up in Florida, clear on the other side of the country, if you don't mind me asking?
 
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