My current avatar is an image of my alter-ego and nom-de-plume (more on him below) writing a story while his latest critic looks on, sorta.

Favorite authors, besides HPL, include Alfred Bester, Ramsey Campbell, Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, A.E.Van Vogt, Theodore Sturgeon, Philip K. Dick, Robert Bloch, Richard Matheson, Arthur C. Clarke, Joseph Payne Brennan, Manly Wade Wellman, Clark Ashton Smith and many others.

Favorite cartoons: include, but not limited to, original (1960s) versions of Space Ghost, The Herculoids, Jonny Quest. Thundarr the Barbarian. Kim Possible. Mighty Orbots. Freakazoid! Avatar:The Last Airbender. The Tick. Justice League (Unlimited). Record of Lodoss Wars. Megas XLR. The Spectacular Spider-Man -- best animated Spidey ever. And the recent Avengers:World's Greatest Heroes is shaping up to be superlative. One can only hope the movie will work as well. (And it did, too! I just wish they'd found a way to work the cartoon's theme song into the thing!)

Fave TV shows: The Outer Limits (old and new). The Prisoner (original). Deep Space Nine. Firefly. MASH. Night Gallery. Kolchak:The Night Stalker. The Red Green Show. Dr.Who. Red Dwarf. Monty Python's Flying Circus. The Invaders (original). Thriller. Darkroom. I'm sure there're others.

Fave music: too many to name, but we'll name a few: Radio Massacre International. Univers Zero. Karlheinz Stockhausen. Emerson Lake and Palmer. Van der Graaf. Magma. Jaga Jazzist. Eric Ewazen. Jennifer Higdon. Don Ellis. Amorphis. Ultravox. Therion. Black Bonzo. Hawkwind. Litmus. Man or Astroman. D. Shostakovich. K. Penderecki. Claude Bolling. And so forth. Everything I write is inspired by some sort of music.

The nom de plume I've chosen belonged to a sinister spy character which I co-created way back in Jr. High School -- 1971, in fact -- with another artist friend. Morskopp was rarely seen without a bomb in his hand (influence of Alice Cooper's "Halo of Flies," which inspired his creation -- "I put a time bomb/in your submarine") and his duck-bill nose dwarfed both Pinocchio's and Jimmy Durante's. He is an Original Character villain in one of these fanfics as well, since I finally found a universe where he could fit. And here's "Halo of Flies", the song responsible for him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWUskypc1EY

The story FAMILY SECRETS was written as an answer to a challenge from another Kimmunity writer; the plot bunny lay inert for longer than I would have liked,until one day I was listening to THIS and it gave me a handle to hang a story on. In fact, I even paraphrased a line from the song in the story. That sort of thing happens pretty regularly with my tales. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hlh51uqbsc

The villainous OC Andrei "Qua-Czar" Asafiev in RADIATION SITUATION actually got his first mention in AUTOMATION REVELATION, as simply part of a list of goofy villain names. I was doing the Star Trek thing there, you know the drill: "The dictators of your planet Earth, Captain, such as Napoleon. Hitler. Stalin. Xucharoth XV." When he got fleshed out for RS, however, this was responsible: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXPzZezGu8k

Drakken's time tilting device in RADIATION SITUATION was taken from an ancient scifi program as an homage; you can see the original right here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UT-dNtRg5g&feature=fvst

Here's the tune that inspired the story VEHICLE PICKLE; I was spinning it one night while juggling some Motor Edish ideas and suddenly it all came into focus, more or less. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1oQXhbcIRA

If you got here because of the Lovecraft/CTHULHU elements in REVELATIONS IN GREEN AND BLACK, you really need to see the trailers for the film of THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd5gWGfnK5M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_ee9K9hXtw&feature=channel

If reading REVELATIONS IN GREEN AND BLACK made you wonder if Cthulhu really is all that, then you need to get inoculated with some H.P.Lovecraft, and you can find all the good stuff here: http:///writings/texts/

Song that led to the writing of VELOCITY FEROCITY:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=BA5AEED21679EC4E&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&v=9Ix8upIvs00

Song that led to REVELATIONS IN GREEN AND BLACK (with a Shego video wedded to it, instead of the original visuals); I misunderstood a single word, hearing "prize" as "power", and that misunderstanding led me to the plot. Serendipity!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f3TE0_QhZE

Song that spawned the plot for ILLUSION CONFUSION:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBfyVxoMPCs

Although I played John Carpenter's "Big Trouble in Little China" soundtrack almost exclusively while writing AUTOMATION REVELATION, the story originated in contemplation of this music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfC30rx4ZM8

And Drakken got his Orgone Accumulator in the same story right HERE:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fJ0P1f0Ys0

The album that inspired STRANGE EXCHANGE's plot bunny is Present's "Barbaro (ma non troppo)" ; that band can be seen playing a bit from that album right HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc0P-OqF3PE

Never say never: I hadn't really planned on ever returning to the KP/Cthulhu Mythos universe, but THIS led me to the plot bunny that became the REVELATIONS IN GREEN AND BLACK sequel HALLOWE'EN SCENE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvOypQOzY3M

Hear the song that inspired SNEEZE UNEASE right here, in a poorly recorded, out of focus video from 1975: http:///mail/shol64/3326/3353.html Or else get the Sparks album Propaganda and hear it clearly. With lyrics. Achoo! And then, of course, there's always this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnwfKSFCcyE

And here's the band and the song that inspired the Hallowe'en adventure DAUNTING HAUNTING: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugeYbNmYjkc