The photograph of the red-shouldered hawk in my avatar is the copyrighted work of Mark A. Chappell, and it is with his gracious permission that I tinkered with the original image to use here.

Writing about myself holds all the appeal of a mandatory self-statement for a performance review, but in brief:

My degree is in Linguistics; my career is in Accounting. Yes, I know. One must eat.

My taste in music and art is wildly eclectic, the sole criterion being that it moves me at some level. I played the cello for 13 years, the harp for 2, remember being in a childhood recorder band, and failed miserably at teaching myself to play the guitar, although this last may have been due in part to the thing failing to stay tuned for more than six chords at a time (it was a VERY cheap instrument).

In the visual arts I am sadly incapable of drawing a straight line with a ruler, but otherwise I've dabbled in whatever happens to appeal to my grasshopper mentality from jewelry & bath product crafting to photography, fractals, and PhotoShop.

As long as I can remember I've had a deep love for language and the written word. After a decades-long hiatus in which the only things I wrote were either work-related or bath product blurbs, BioWare's Dragon Age and the work of artists on this and similar websites inspired me to attempt setting out some of the ideas banging about in my head.

My mantra: Douglas, Terry and Neil are the Triumvirate of Awesome.

)O(

About 'Mabari & Magus': My hyper-polite mage was originally intended to be merely a one-shot joke at my own excessively codependent playing style, but as I wrote 'Manners' he and Blossom sprang fully-formed from my subconscious with their backstories intact and utterly won my heart. 'Sabhya' is a Hindi word - put it in Google Translate to see why I chose the name.

Stories set in the M&M universe:

Manners pub. 4-Jul-2010. Complete. First appearance of Sabhya and Blossom.

Recreation pub. 11-Jul-2010. Complete. Blossom first mentioned by name.

Mabari and Magus pub. 22-Jan-2011. Ongoing.

Encounters in L-space pub. 31-Jul-2011. Complete. Crossover with Ventisquear's 'Failed to Fail' & Champion the Wonder Snail's 'Remembering Aunt Mildred' universes, whose works I highly recommend.

At Peace pub. 29-Aug-2011. Complete. Post-game fluff.

Black Bird and Golden Birdpub. 28-Nov-2011. Complete. Post-game.

Of Oath and Leave Taking pub. 21-Feb-2012. Complete. Post-game.

The Long Road pub. 15-Apr-2012. Ongoing. Companion piece to 'Mabari & Magus', Sabhya's origins pre-game and key points during the Blight.

Fan Art:
9/21/2011 - Yes! My first fan art and I'm over the moon! One of my favorite writers, WellspringCD, surprised me with this awesome portrait of Blossom with his favorite toy: http:///blossom.html

1/27/2012 - Suilven surprised me with this beautiful illustration for 'Black Bird and Golden Bird': http:///art/Black-Bird-and-Golden-Bird-281845352Her artwork is just as gorgeous as her writing!

3/18/2012 - The ridiculously awesomely talented Champion the Wonder Snail created this portrait of Sabhya and Blossom that has left me flailing in incoherent joy. http:///art/Blossoming-Friendship-coloured-290101247

8/29/2012 – Ventisquear the amazingly talented created these perfect scenes, as well as gifting me with a custom Sabhya head-morph. 8D
'Sabhya and Blossom': http:///gallery/37996341#/d55qf46
'Leaving for Antiva': http:///gallery/37996341#/d55qf67
''Kiss': http:///gallery/37996341#/d56k5af

)O(