I have difficulty describing myself. Not because I don’t have the words, but because I’m not sure which aspect to begin with. In times past this page consisted of a run-and-gun Q&A of the sort that used to be forwarded around in chain letters, i.e. a list of favorites. As the years have gone by, that sort of “bio” has not sat well with me, since it reduces “me” to the most superficial things imaginable. So I’ve written this more long form biography as a way of dealing with that and perhaps provide better insight into who I am. Honestly, this paragraph probably does a fairly good job of that.
I am predominantly three things. First and foremost, I am a writer. Secondly, I am a proud geek. Those two things go hand in hand. I primarily write fiction and take great delight in crafting stories that combine my various interests. Those interests would be classified as fantasy and science-fiction (geekery). A youth spent devouring comic books, video games, J.R.R. Tolkien, Star Wars, Transformers, G.I. Joe, Doctor Who, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and countless other franchises & mediums have left their indelible mark. Even as a child, I concocted story lines for my action figures. There always had to be a reason. I also write informal, non-fiction work such as this blog, because it gives me an outlet for those various interests. It also lets me indulge in all the literary flourishes I keep out of my formal non-fiction work (yeah, I do that, too).
Lastly, I am a political nerd. Probably not the kind you’re used to, though. I’m the kind of political nerd that loves to look at how you structure legislative checks and balances, who gets to decide what, what a political campaign looks like (what’s smart and what’s stupid), what affects voter turnout, that sort of thing. And I will run the regression analyses to explore those things, because I’m not just a political nerd, I’m a trained political nerd.
In my spare time, you’ll find me behind a camera. Photography is the hobby I wish I’d discovered sooner. Getting behind a lens, looking for unique compositions in your surroundings, and getting the camera set just so to deliver a perfect exposure is fun, is relaxing, and is expensive. Oh, is it expensive. But the fun makes it worth it.
As I alluded to earlier, I also play video games, collect comic books, and engage in all manners of geekery. This blog used to consist of a mishmash of geek related things, but I’m trying to take a more thoughtful and focused approach now. Blogging just to blog clearly didn’t work for me. I have enough assignments and deadlines in life that I didn’t need more self-imposed ones. Instead I’d like to take the time to construct a post, but have it be something meaningful and (hopefully) interesting. And that’s what I’d like this blog to be about. I have Twitter (@emtrey) for the rest of it. All those old posts are still around in the archive, though.
If you still need the run-and-gun favorites, though: TV show is Doctor Who, movie is Star Wars, video game is Super Mario Bros. (NES), and music is predominantly scores (for movies, TV shows, and video games). I shoot Canon and Fuji. I’m unabashedly an Apple user (since the days of the Macintosh LC) and am fully integrated into their eco-system with an iMac, MacBook Pro, iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. I do have a Windows partition for gaming, though. I’ve got a huge library of gaming systems, but current gen is only the Wii U and PlayStation 4.
That’s me in a nutshell. Like I said, this blog is a collection of writings that will be focused around my interests. Thanks for reading this far.