"The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, and familiar things new." - Samuel Johnson.
I am a writer, an amateur at best, and my ambition is to become a successful novelist. Right now, I enjoy writing flash fiction, some poetry, and short stories. Check out my blog for updates about my work. I still have alot of work today before I produce a novel. I have a few ideas in mind and I have only begun to put some words down. Who knows if I will ever finish that one?
If I'm not writing, then you can find me reading. I love to read and collect books...I guess I should have been a librarian.
I like strategy games, games of trivial knowledge, and I can never pass up a good ol' crossword puzzle.
As far as hobbies go, I am a martial artist and I have trained in several different styles, but I am currently focused on Hapkido.
Not the sterotypical southern male, I can be cultured in the right setting; sipping wine and enjoying a fine piece of classical music. I have even been known to engage in philosophical conversations...shocking, I know! I have a taste for the finer things in life even though my current salary prevents my indulgence. Don't be surprised to see me one weekend tailgating outside of Reliant Park before a Texans game and the next weekend taking in a play in the Theatre District in beautiful downtown Houston.
I can be sarcastic and my humor tends to be dry. However, I do enjoy the silliness of the Wayans Brothers, the Three Stooges, The Marx Brothers, and so on. I love to have a good time and I am rarely angry. I guess I have my mother to thank for this disposition...the sarcasm, that came from my father. I hate the drama...so don't even go there! I have my own issues to deal with.
I'd like to meet:
I would like to meet as many people that I possibly can in my lifetime. Sometimes we are not aware of the impact we can have on the lives of people everyday. I believe we should take a little time each day to get to know the people in our lives...those we know as friends and acquaintances and those we meet in passing. Who knows, we may learn something about the people we thought we knew...or even a little about ourselves.
Music:
I play the guitar in what I'd like to call a "pseudo cover band". A couple of friends and I decided to start a band after a night of drunkeness at a local pub. We watched the house band as they performed and said to each other, "Hey, we can do that!" Later, after we sobered up, we were convinced that it was still a good idea. At this point, we are only aspiring to be a cover band, nothing more. So the local talent has nothing to worry about. More to come on our progress...stay tuned.
I enjoy most genres of music. Sometimes I like to rock it out with some new rock or kick it with some classic 80's sounds. Other times, I like to just mellow out with a little smooth jazz or tap my toes to some southern blues. I don't mind a little country now and then and I am very picky about my rap and hip-hop.
Movies:
Just off the top of my head:
The Notebook,
Braveheart,
Rob Roy,
The Last Samurai,
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,
The Secret Window,
What's Eating Gilbert Grape?,
Finding Neverland,
What Dreams May Come,
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,
To Kill A Mocking Bird,
Grapes of Wrath,
Insomnia,
Pulp Fiction,
Get Shorty,
The Godfather,
The Godfather II,
Goodfellas,
Donnie Brasco,
Boondock Saints,
In The Name of The Father,
Michael Collins,
Rocky,
Rocky II,
Rocky Balboa,
Forget Paris,
Urban Cowboy,
Fight Club,
Lonesome Dove,
Streets of Laredo,
Dead Man's Walk,
Young Guns,
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly,
The King and I,
The Ten Commandments,
The Greatest Story Ever Told,
Ben Hur,
El Cid,
The Sound of Music,
Monty Python and The Holy Grail,
Three Musketeers,
Fiddler On The Roof,
Highlander,
A Beautiful Mind,
Pursuit of Happyness,
...and so much more!
Television:
I enjoy crime dramas, anything on the TCM channel, The History Channel, History International, A&E, PBS, and theatre. I enjoy British comedies, the humor seems to be in the witty dialogue, rather than the insults and cheap shots found in American programs.
I enjoy watching college and professional football, college and international wrestling, boxing and Mixed Martial Arts.
Books:
Some of my favorite authors:
(in no certain order)
Stephen King,
Dean Koontz,
The Dalai Lama,
Ken Follet,
J.R.R. Tolkien,
Larry McMurtry,
John Steinbeck,
Percy Bysse Shelley,
Mark Twain,
Edgar Allen Poe,
William Shakespeare,
Jane Austen,
Dave Lowry,
Billy Graham,
Thomas Merton,
Scott Hahn,
Tim Pat Coogan,
Thich Nhat Hanh,
David McCullough,
James Clavell,
...and last but not least...
My fellow writers on the Internet Writing Workshop
Heroes:
"We find not much in ourselves to admire, we are always privately wanting to be like somebody else. If everybody was satisfied with himself there would be no heroes. We admire them, we envy them, for great qualities which we ourselves lack. Hero worship consists in just that.One can be a hero to other folk, and in a sort of vague way understand it, or at least believe it, but that a person can really be a hero to a near and familiar friend is a thing which no hero has ever yet been able to realize, I am sure. To be human is to have one's little modicum of romance secreted away in one's composition. One never ceases to make a hero of one's self in private." - Mark Twain
