What I'm not is a typical guy. I don't watch sports, I read a lot and I'm not shy when it comes to talking about my feelings. Or much else. Some might argue I'm not shy enough.

I've got a quirky, sarcastic (but hopefully not caustic) sense of humor, a reasonably sharp mind and a willingness to listen. Plus, a dogged tenacity when it comes to fixing stuff around the house, even though I'm making it up as I go along.

I characterize myself as an introvert hiding behind a mask of extroversion. Some people accuse me of being too "on" all the time. Others immediately start asking what's wrong as soon as I'm quiet for a couple of minutes.

I’m a pop culture buff, addicted to well-written books, movies, TV and comics. I’m frequently guilty of quoting favorite lines from all of the above. Sometimes fairly obscure ones.

I occasionally worry that I watch too much TV. The DVR probably isn't helping any in that regard.

I was raised Baptist and I respect the beliefs of others (or at least their right to have them), but I’m not a religious guy. Honestly, religion doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

Some favorite things:

Color: Blue
Writer: Dashiell Hammett
TV show (current): The Big Bang Theory
TV show (all time): Firefly
Movie: Princess Bride
Beer: Guinness
Season: Fall
Random Other things: Wolves, Comics & Robin Hood

Professionally, I'm a writer, working primarily in comics and branching out into prose. Things have been a a bit bumpy lately, so I'm in the process of getting my career back on track.

Writing, I hope. Otherwise I'm in the wrong business. Cracking wise. Lifting spirits. Listening. Keeping calm in a crisis. Minor repairs around the house. Absorbing information.

I'd love to say my wit, but I'm not sure that's true. My eyes, maybe?

Favorite books: Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep, Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Robert Parker's Early Autumn, Loren D. Estleman's Motor City Blues, John Myers Myers' Silverlock, Simon Hawke's Time Wars, Fritz Lieber's Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser stories, Robert E. Howard's Conan stories, Gordon Dickson's Childe Cycle (aka the Dorsai books), David Gerrold's War Against the Chtorr series, Jim Butcher's Dresden Files books, Joel Rosenberg's Guardians of the Flame series, Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber and A Night in the Lonesome October, the Doc Ford books by Randy Wayne White, Howard Pyle's Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, and the list goes on.

Favorite Movies: The Maltese Falcon, Princess Bride, The Three Musketeers]], [The Four Musketeers, Star Wars, Local Hero, Highlander, Serenity, Streets of Fire, Hudson Hawk, Big Trouble in Little China, An American Werewolf in London, The Wolf-Man, Tremors, Lord of the Rings, Adventures of Robin Hood, Gotcha!, Pirates of the Caribbean, Casablanca, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight, just about any caper flick.

My taste in music is also eclectic, but gravitates toward the lyric-driven stuff. I listen to David Baerwald, Melissa Etheridge, Loreena McKennett and Warren Zevon on a regular basis.

Friendship, good books, Trader Joe's French Roast Decaf coffee, The Best of Warren Zevon: A Quiet Normal Life, banter and Ben & Jerry's Coffee Heath Bar Crunch.

Just about everything. My current writing project. My next writing project. Love. Sex. Problems. Solutions. How my friends are doing. Why I don't keep in better touch with my friends. Why my friends don't keep in better touch with me. What to eat. What not to eat. Why comics aren't wildly popular. Why my comics aren't wildly popular. The amazing power of physical contact. The power of amazing mental and emotional connection. Work. Lack of work. Why more people don't think more like me. Why I don't think like more people. Why my life isn't less of a mess. Why my office space isn't less of a mess. Why I obsess about mess. Why I don't think about less. Why this is suddenly getting Seussian.

Watching Stargate Universe and Dollhouse. Which is part of why I'm signing up here. The DVR can snag the shows. I need to get out more.

It bugs me when I hear gambling referred to as gaming. Gaming involves a tabletop, some polyhedral dice and imagination, dammit.

...you like to banter, you embrace your inner geek, you've found any or all of what I've written above intriguing and you want to tell me so, you've found any or all of what I've written above flabbergasting and you want to tell me so, or you have a spectacular vocabulary and want to show it off.