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I am available at reasonable rates for writing. Ad copy; reviews of books, movies, games; essays; tech industry or computer support articles; and more.

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A small sample of my writing range:

A Simple Trick: Disabling a Specific Key

Simple, straightforward, technical explanations that anyone can benefit from.

Most of the time, I learn something new because I have a problem to solve. I’ll tolerate some annoyances as long as they’re minor but if they go on for a while or start becoming worse, I go looking for a solution.

I’ve been playing Fallout 4 a bit lately. I know I’m not the most dextrous gamer around. I am, however, far more comfortable with mouse and keyboard than I am with any controller. So when I get into a combat situation and I start flailing around on the keyboard trying to shoot the super mutants, I have found myself hitting the Windows key, which pauses the game and drops me back to the desktop.

The Princess and The Brewer

A short fantasy story, a myth of daring, deceit, and lots and lots of drinking.

“The princess! Tell us about the princess!” Even the girl seemed interested, now, though she was shy to show any sign of it.

“You know that tale? That’s a good one. Very well. Get that kettle over the fire, carefully, you get some water in it, and the both you listen while I tell you what I remember of it.”

As the two siblings worked, she began to speak. “The Empress’s secondborn–” Mettio nearly contradicted her but she silenced him with a point of her finger “As I was saying, the secondborn, known to the Free Folk and Sunsetters like yourself as Babble, but her given name was… alas, it was lost when the Empire fell. But her name was not a mark of her character; she was a singer of bright songs, and a swords woman beyond compare, wielder of a , and when she came of age, knowing her older sister was the heir, she wandered across the face of the world. She wanted to see every part of the Empire her mother had built, and even the parts that still refused to join her, and when she’d seen all of that, she kept going, until she found the lands under the shadow of the sleeping Dragon.

Feature Request for Mac OS X: replacing synonyms

A tech article, explaining the need for a new feature that is of particular interest to writers.

I’m a writer and I’ve got a pretty big vocabulary, if I do say so myself, but I do find myself searching for the right word sometimes. I like using Mac OS X’s built-in dictionary and thesaurus for that.

Shamsee: A Fistful of Lunars, by Tarwater and Ricker

A book review of a graphic novel.

Tristan Tarwater’s dialogue sparkles and she drops in place names, swears to new gods, and other tidbits that set this story and these characters in a fully realized fictional world, Tarwater’s The Valley of Ten Crescents. The characters’ motivations and personality are built on a solid foundation, and then Adrian Ricker illustrates them with a deft hand and helped by an assist from Michelle Nguyen’s gorgeous colors, expanding the world even further. That world has a subtle tilt to it, one that I found intriguing and left me wanting to learn more.

Adrift in time

A personal essay with dash of memoir.

Sitting at dinner with friends last night, celebrating Terry’s 50th birthday, he revealed something that showed I could still be surprised by a man I had known for almost four decades.

“You introduced me to Star Wars,” he said.

I couldn’t begin to process this.