Hi I'm new here, and I thought I'd better say something about me. OK well at 53 years I'm incredibly old (fashioned). I have been on-line since 1995, and consider myself 'just about' PC literate, but they keep moving the goal posts. I live in England and, apart from a few visits here and there (Mexico, Holland, France...) have been here most of my life. When I am not trying to improve the profitability of my clients, I can be found pursuing one of two of my hobbies which include: Spreadsheet model design... yes I do this for fun as well as for work, for example a Premiership (English Football) table calculator, that takes two minutes a week (tops) to update. Why, do you ask... well Burnley Football Club are in the Premiership this season. Need I say more. Photo Image editing. I use Photoshop Elements. Mostly I touch up the pictures I take on my Canon Powershot G3. Sometimes I touch up / add colour to some old B&W's for my main client - pictures from his youth - as a favour. Audio editing. Well there's loads going on here. I have just finished archiving some classical LP's. This means converting from analogue to wave. The next phase of this project is to narrate the relevant sleeve notes. And then I might follow that up with some snaps of the cover artwork. I have stopped trying to compose in midi. The results were pleasing to me, but if I am being honest, my musical attempts were pretty awful. Writing Having had GSP Novel Writing Software knocking about, untouched, on my shelves for over two years, I decided to give it a go. I have written 80 (that's eighty) pages of the most awful tripe, but I have had some fun writing it. If I ever finish it, it will be, oooh at least 150 pages long. I have no intention of publishing. If you are really unlucky I might post some on this site. That's enough about my hobbies, here are some interests. I am interested in politics, philosophy, religion, economics... and Football (or soccer if you live in the remote continent of USA) My favourite authors are too many to mention but here are a few that I have enjoyed and why (SF & fantasy only) PK Dick: dark humour, funny; R Zelazny: religion and historical motifs into SF & fantasy; RA Heinlein: future history, likeable rogues, optimism, realism; A Norton: coming of age, coping with ostracisation, well researched fantasy motifs; I Asimov: just for the three laws of robotics, oh and the superimposition of the Roman Empire motif on an interstellar civilisation; F Herbert: Wow!* Dune, religion, politics / dynastic planning... I still get something new out of Dune even now, and there are not many books you can say that about; D Lessing: The human condition intelligently portrayed, without the prism of spacehips, hokum technology / 'do anything' machines; J M Straczynski: for making TV SF evolve. * Wow! in this context does not equal World of Warcraft Thanks for reading this.
Hello Archullus, Welcome to the Writing Forums. Posting your own work should not be among the very first things you do here. It is worth taking the time to see what other people have done to improve their writing, and see if some of it applies to your writing as well. That is part of why we require members to review other members' work before posting their own for review. On the other hand, there are no restrictions, other than content and copyright rules, on showcasing your work in your member blog. If you haven't explored the site yet, you should probably do so soon. Newcomers often gravitate to the Lounge, the Word Games, or the Review Room, but there is much more to be discovered if you poke in the corners. Remember to check out our FAQ as well, and be sure to read through the forum rules, too, to avoid any misunderstandings or hurt feelings. Respect for one another is our principal mandate. As for the Review Room, new joiners often wonder why we do things a bit differently on this site than on other writing sites. We emphasize constructive critique as a vital writing skill. Training your eye by reviewing other people's work helps you improve your own writing even before you present it for others to see. Therefore, we ask members to review other people's writing before posting work of their own. The Review Room forums on this site, therefore, are true workshops, not just a bulletin board for displaying your work (and on that note, please only post each item for review in one Review Room forum). Also, please use the same thread for all revisions and additional excerpts from the same piece of writing. See this post, Why Write Reviews Before Posting My Work? for more information. And while you're looking around, don't forget to check out our Weekly Short Story Contest and Weekly Poetry Contest. They actually run more than one week apiece, but any member may enter, and all members are urged to vote for their favorites. Enjoy your stay here, and have fun!
