Words, words, words.

I like to write a lot, which is why my web page tends to be really wordy. As of late poetry has been my primary focus, though I'm also in a continual struggle to write play scripts and fiction that I think is remotely worth while.

For several years of my life I really wanted to be a professional author. I have since realized that one may well be a professional author in addition to whatever you happen to be doing to try to make money. It's interesting how every career I gravitate towards involves the possibility of long periods without food....


   I've had poetry published in The Offbeat and Oats, two on campus literary publications.

Fall semester of 1998 I had a creative writing class, followed by a playwriting class that Spring Semester with Arthur Athanason. I also had two semesters of poetry with Diane Wakowski.

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Research Papers.

Here's a quick list of several of the major research papers I wrote over the second half of my undergraduate career.  They're here in pdf in order of oldest to most recent.

The HST Key Project and the Hubble Constant
A Brief History of Modern Art
William Schwenk Gilbert
Proplyds in the Orion Nebula
NEW The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Physical Record of the Past

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I've posted some of my other writing here, but most of it is quite old now.  At least five years old, some as much as seven.  And good gravy, some of it is not what I would consider good.  But, it's still better than some of the stuff that shows up on the web, and this page would be awfully empty without it, so it stays up for now.  Remember that I don't look at any of it as particularly representative of my writing now; if you're interested in my current efforts out the Offbeat or my above research papers.

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Fiction
Framed by the Light is a piece that was written in the fall of '98 as an exercise for my creative writing class.
The Fire Without, and Burning Withing  was my first short story for my '98 creative writing class.
The Fire Without, the Burning Within (Revised)- Here's a revised version of the above story, with better character development and heightened metaphor.  Compare the two and tell me what you think.
Edwin McKendric A character sketch for my '98 creative writing class.
Waiting for CATA A dialogue excercise for my '98 creative writing class.
The Bounds of Earth is my second short story for my '98 creative writing class.
Drama
Petty Theft and other Good Times is a short play I wrote for my '98 creative writing class.
Poetry  - Rather heavy-handed stuff from my '98 creative writing class.
The Wheelbarrow
A sighing summer's song
The old guitarist, scene through Picasso a poem based on the Picasso painting next to it.


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I think I've inherited the drive to write from my father.  He would write amazing, funny, and strange stories all the time when my brother and I were younger.  He still whips one out occassionally...

  Here's a rather rough story I wrote in my sophomore year of high school by clicking here.  Keep in mind that this story is almost eight years old now, and I was a somewhat different person when I wrote it.  I started rewriting it with a  slightly revised plot a few years ago and was pleased with the results.  But then it got put back up on the shelf as my fiction interests began to get all postmodern.

Pterodactyl Man

The developing saga of my very own superhero. For a preview of the actual novel in progress, click here.  This was written at the beginning of my junior year in high school, so progress is slow.  I haven't looked at this one in over a year.

Music

My first attempt at a full symphonic score was the Pterodactyl Man Theme.  It's kind of hit a dead end for a while, though, even though I kind of know where I want it to go.  It was probably a little ambitious for a kid in high school who had never really written a piece of music before.
  In the meantime, I've written a really cool saxophone quartet, that I'm pretty proud of.  My friend Jane has helped me analyze it musically, and apparently I break  the rules of Western music left and right.  But, I suppose I can be avant garde.
   I'm working on a few other instrumental pieces on and off.

Then there's the work I've done for my proto band that never really was Rhymes With Orange. I've written a fair number of songs.  Maybe I'll post lyrics someday.  Or an mp3 or two.

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