… the Blog

This blog is about creating stories involving flawed, kick-ass heroines or anti-heroines.  No super-heroines here.  It’s the villainess forced to make good, the flawed heroine who must beat the odds, and the reluctant anti-heroine grimly struggling to save the day.  Whether with sword, dirk, gun, or whip, they go over, around, or through whatever obstacles confront them.

I’ll post general thoughts on writing, book reviews, writing techniques, links to useful resources, and snippets of my own works in progress.  All will relate to the blog theme:  Flawed Femmes with whips, guns, and blades.

… Me

Me!

I was born and raised in Vancouver on Canada’s west coast.  I still live there today.  In school I was always a bit of a nerd, much more drawn to math and science than anything else, other than history.  I dove into books quite early and stayed there for most of high-school, emerging with a vocabulary rather larger than my contemporaries.   Oddly enough this did little to endear me to my peers.

I loathed sports, probably because I was absolutely terrible at them.  This has abated as I have grown older and become fitter, but I’m still pretty disinterested in them.   I went right into university after high-school and majored in political science. 

Sadly there were few job opportunities for people possessing an undergraduate degree in that discipline so I took some time off from school to determine what I wanted to do with my life (I’m still figuring that out).  I wound up working in a drug warehouse, shipping pharmaceuticals and related products to drugstores and hospitals.  I pushed drugs – literally.

After a couple of years of that I went back and obtained my MBA.

My work career has had me spending a lot of time involved with the two things I swore I would avoid when I got out of high-school – teaching and computers.  I found I was quite good at corporate training, teaching, and had a knack for using technology to meet training outcomes.  I’ve worked in both small companies, and large global enterprises.

Currently I am an independent training consultant specializing in eLearning, mobile learning, and corporate training in general.

Interests include (in no particular order) history, science fiction (for example: X-Files, BattleStar Galactica 2004, Dark Matter, The 100 and others), The Walking Dead, authors Joe Abercrombie, David Weber, and John Ringo, animation, cats (my girlfriend and I have two), a few computer games (Civilization and X-Com 2) and strong women (make of that what you will).  Guilty pleasures include pizza, Xena, Warrior Princess, and Archer.

Of course, I am very interested in fiction writing.

When I hit fifty I became serious about fitness and I now work out about four to five times a week.  They say it gets easier.  They say you begin to look forward to it after a while.  They lie on both counts. At least I am no longer a tub of goo. More like a quart.

I started writing in my late forties, focusing on Xena, Warrior Princess and X-Files fan-fiction. Very quickly I decided I wanted characters of my own so I could become published in the future. I focused on topics and characters that appealed to me: Empire, history, politics, military strategy and tactics, and strong, yet flawed, female protagonists. Alternate history fascinates me and that is reflected in my writing. However, though my stories take place in an alternate world I avoid magic and magical creatures. Lady Merreth and her adventures are set forth in my first novel – Western Watch — which I am currently writing.