I started reading The Wheel of Time back in the summer of 1991 just after I graduated from High School while on a family road trip. I first picked up the books because I spotted the Darrell K Sweet cover art for The Great Hunt as I was passing the "New Book" shelf at my local library. I had grown up with so many books around the house featuring artwork by Sweet, and had read so many of the Xanth novels (and other Piers Anthony books with his artwork) that the style stood out readily and caught my attention. So I stopped and took a look at the book, reading the description. It sounded interesting (me being a fantasy junkie and all) and seeing it was book #2 I went in search of number one and found it moments later in the stacks. That led to 20-some odd years of not-so-patiently waiting for the series to end while I theorized online on the old newsgroups and various websites (this one here, readandfindout.com and its predecessor wotmania.com as well as a few less well known places).

I've read many other fantasy series (of course I read Lord of the Rings, and have seen the movies countless times), and many many science fiction series as well. My history with fantasy began when I was six years old (I started reading at a very young age according to my parents, and all during school I consistently tested well above my grade level in reading skill/comprehension) when my mom first handed me the Chronicles of Narnia books to read. I ploughed through all seven books several times before asking mom for more "fairy tales like this" (the idea of genres was something entirely foreign to me at that point). So mom gave me her copy of The Hobbit. I got about five or six pages in and gave up and went back and re-read the Narnia stuff for a fourth time. After that I gave The Hobbit another shot and next thing I knew I was finishing that and reading The Lord of the Rings at the ripe old age of eight! From that age until my early 30s I re-read tLotR at least once, if not twice, each year, and had even read The Silmarillion by the time I was ten.

From there I moved on to David Eddings, just diving in and kicking out The Belgariad in less than two weeks, and read The Mallorean as it was published. I even read his The Elenium and The Tamuli when those came out (I secretly liked those two more!). I also fell in love with Raymond E Feist's Riftwar stuff, especially the Empire Trilogy he wrote with Janny Wurts set in Kelewan, the other side of the eponymous Rift. Anne McCaffrey's Pern books, though technically science fiction, were also a major part of my "fantasy" diet during my adolesence and later teen years. And then, when I was 18 I discovered Robert Jordan, and a whole new world opened up to me (literally). Since then I have read many other fantasy series, including A Song of Ice and Fire of course, and I've tried the Malazan books (only got two and one third books in and had to quit). The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever and the Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant were also a major part of my teen years, but when I re-read them in my 20s and again in my 30s I realised how much I didn't understand during the previous reads. Same goes for the Dune series (which I first read in 5th grade).

Some of my other favorite authors over the years have been Piers Anthony (mostly when I was younger), Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein (my favorite being Stranger in a Strange Land), Philip Jose Farmer, R Scott Bakker, Orson Scott Card (before everyone realised how much of a homophobe he was, and before such a thing mattered to me and the rest of society), Richard K Morgan, Elizabeth Moon, Tad Williams (his Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy is, while not my favorite, probably the most beautifully written fantasy I've ever read), Kim Stanley Robinson, Neal Stephenson, Colleen McCullough (a historical fiction writer, whose Masters of Rome series seriously blew my mind), and my current favorite living author Peter F Hamilton. I highly recommend his Commonwealth Saga to everyone, it is one of the best Space Operas I have ever encountered, and is the SF/F setting that I would most want to live in. Hamilton is also my #4 favorite author of all time (behind Tolkien, #1, Asimov, #2, and Frank Herbert, #3; Jordan is #5 for reference). And of course I love Brandon Sanderson, probably the best living Fantasy writer that I know of, and the man who will likely go down in literary history as having achieved the greatest accomplishment in Fantasy Literature of all time (the Stormlight Archive in particular, and The Cosmere in general).

I've read a ton of the old "Legends" Star Wars novels (before the whole "New Jedi Order" thing kicked in at least, only got a couple books in on that and realised it sucked monkeybutt and quit reading Star Wars totally until the modern day canon stuff), and some of the newer stuff. I am one of those people that loved The Last Jedi as well as Solo: A Star Wars Story and am overall happy with the direction the Disney Star Wars is going. I also love Star Trek (though I have never once in my life read any Star Trek fiction, although I have read Star Trek sourcebooks/handbooks/tech manuals). I am a lover of the Babylon 5 franchise as well as the Stargate franchise (Stargate Universe was the best installment, IMO). And I'm a massive fan of Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica series (and yes, I also loved Caprica). Ironically, my favorite television show of all time is not Science Fiction nor Fantasy: it's The Wire. You really can't make a show better than that, it is pure perfection from the beginning of the first episode until the end of the final episode.

I was for a short while a comic book reader, but that never really caught on for me, although I am a big fan of comic book characters, especially what the DC/CW shows are doing, and what the MCU is doing (the DC movies really aren't up to par with the exception of Wonder Woman). I know a fair share about comic book characters outside of the shows and movies, but that comes from reading Wikipedia and other online sources, and from YouTube shows like Collider Heroes which was originally hosted by the late great Jon Schnepp (look him up sometime, the man was amazing!). If the television show is comic book based I try to watch it, for the most part at least. Didn't care for Legion, or Preacher and never even tried Happy. I might have missed others, but I try not to. Same with SF/F shows: I try to watch all of them, or at least try them out. I'm kind of a snob that way; whereas the "literati" look down on Fantasy and Science Fiction, I do the opposite, I tend to look down at stuff that isn't Fantasy or Science Fiction. But some stuff does slip through the cracks and I miss watching or reading them. And then there are the shows/books that aren't genre that I really enjoy (usually Historical Fiction/Period Pieces, or, The Wire). 

My other passions (beyond reading/watching Fantasy & Science Fiction) is learning. I am most interested in the fields of history, paleoanthropology (human evolution is freaking fascinating!), anthropology, astronomy, physics, astrophysics, and related fields. Basically the sciences (whether "hard" or "soft") that are aligned with my love of fantasy and science fiction (and can even be considered "research" for writing such fiction). So even stuff like planetary sciences, astrobiology and such fascinate me. I might not necessarily read books on these topics (although I have a bunch of such books), but (magazine or web) articles I'll read, and I will most definitely watch documentaries on such topics. I am also fascinated by mathematics, despite not being that good at it (I topped out at Pre-Calculus in college, and don't remember half of it); one of my favorite YouTube channels is Numberphile, a must view for anyone who likes to learn about numbers, math(s), number theory and math(s) tricks. In fact, by my estimate, I watch more educational material from YouTube than anything else (and I do watch quite a bit of entertainment news type stuff, including almost everything from Collider Video and their other channels). Of course, all my YouTube is on top of the televised/streamed "TV" content I watch).

I am a former gamer, but of the real gaming, not that video gaming stuff. I've played various iterations of D&D and AD&D, Alpha Dawn, Boot Hill, Toon, Vampire the Masquerade (tabletop and LARP) and the Star Wars RPG (both the D6 game by West End Games and the d20 by Wizards of the Coast). I'm a recovering Magic the Gathering player (yes, I said recovering as that game is an addiction), and a one time player of the original Star Wars CCG. I've tried playing the Wheel of Time CCG, but we never seemed to get it down (never had any luck with the Lord of the Rings game either). I still have all my cards from both of those, somewhere.

I like to smoke cannabis as often as possible, though I don't "wake and bake." I like to wait a couple hours after waking most days before my first toke of the bowl/joint, the primary exception being if I am camping or at a music festival (which is usually camping anyways). I don't smoke myself to the point of stupidity, except when it's late at night and I'm preparing to go to bed, or when it's a party/music festival type atmosphere. I like to be able to function while high, so I rarely get stoned per se, just a nice mellow high, and then maintain it there throughout the afternoon and evening. I live in a state where weed is legal, so I don't worry about saying that to anyone (and I full expect it to be legal across the whole of the United States by 2024; used to say 2020, but we're a bit behind schedule, for reasons). And besides, I rarely if ever poison my liver with alcohol, so I figure I deserve to catch a buzz how I choose, as long as it ain't hurting anyone and I'm not behind the wheel of a car. And I do not endorse minors (under 16) getting intoxicated under any circumstances.

I'm pretty easy going, a rather friendly chap. I am normally, usually, the nicest person you could possibly meet. Unless you cross me or show yourself to be a right evil bastard. At that point: well, all bets are off. I can be a judgemental bastard when it comes to a-holes who don't know how to treat others right. Or to people who are blatant (or even crypto-) racists or fascists. My tolerance for even mild racism is nearly non-existent (and that counts from any race and towards any race). I don't tolerate sexists (whether misogynists or misandrists) nor do I tolerate homophobes or transphobes. And if you bully someone for something they cannot change or help, then you have made an enemy of me, and my friendly demeanor will drop away real quick. But if you steer clear of those transgressions, well we will get along quite well around parts like these!