About

Welcome.

I’ve deliberated about blogging. There are so many blogs to read, including a few possibly, just possibly, written by far smarter people who have more interesting things to say. But after some cajoling from a couple of the usual suspects (you know who you are), I decided to step out of the shadows where I’d so long hidden my light from the world…

Since writing fiction is my main creative focus, this is going to be a writer’s blog. You can expect regular articles on various aspects of writing, editing, and publishing, as well as a mix of reflections and sometimes opinionated commentary on whatever strikes my fancy. In addition, I plan to run the occasional contest and possibly offer up some short fiction of my own once in a while. Even reviews are possible.

I hope you’ll join me for the ride, friends. I plan to blog a couple of times a week, so click that RSS feed button to stay updated.

EMAIL

To contact me directly, simply email me at dariowriter (at-sign) gmail (dot) com

ABOUT ME

If you know me, you’ll know me for an eccentric, coffee-guzzling dreamer, an unusually earthy intellectual, a pragmatist with an annoying streak of idealism whose motto is, “We’re all doomed!”

You’ll know that, like most writers, I’ve lived several lives in one and enjoyed an eccentric career trajectory. I’ve worked in a warehouse, driven delivery trucks, had a small import business, drag raced motorcycles, enjoyed a twenty-five year career as a decorative painter, and now divide my time between writing and CAD design. You may know of my small publishing venture, Panverse Publishing, and that I’ve compiled, edited, and published three critically-acclaimed Science Fiction/Fantasy anthologies (the ‘Panverse’ series); and that my own nonfiction book, ‘Aegean Dream,’ the tragi-comic memoir of the year my wife and I spent on the small Greek island of Skopelos, is currently enjoying robust sales in the UK, and beginning to pick up in the US.

If you don’t know me, here’s the skinny from my standard bio:

I was born in London, England, at exactly nine p.m. on a Tuesday. The gypsy screamed and threw up her hands in horror. There was a plague that year, and Farmer Tom’s cow gave birth to a three-headed calf. Comets blazed through the summer night. There were other portents too, which I am too modest to mention.

Since 1989, I’ve lived in California, North Carolina, a tiny Greek island, and now live in the San Francisco Bay Area with my brilliant and patient, wife, Linda.

I love good food and strong coffee. I like physical work. I need problems to solve and envelopes to push. I’m a very lazy person who’s too driven to indulge his sloth. I like people to have depth and complexity, like wines. I love the arts. I play guitar. I listen to late 50′s R&B, rockabilly and doo-wop, 50′s-60′s progressive jazz, the Russian classical composers, Portuguese fado, and a lot of other music besides. I enjoy hiking and wilderness backpacking; when the  weather co-operates, my wife and I go wakeboarding with friends. We both love to travel.

I abhor politics and the way polarized thinking, along with the stranglehold of the media and the legal establishment, is poisoning society. I’m a pragmatist who sees reality as too complex for simplistic solutions, and who considers issues on their own merits. I believe our species is probably doomed, and that given our collective inability to do better, we fully deserve to become extinct. Until then, I’d settle for a world free of television, sport and arachnids. I’m probably an agnostic of some kind, and certainly an aesthete. I believe we should encourage individual responsibility rather than reward whining. I’m generally good-natured and kind to both people and cats.  I love my friends and hate my enemies.