Howdy folks,
I thought, in this here first post, I ought to introduce myself and what I plan to do here. I’ve never been a big fan of having to write my author bios, never sure what I should bother putting in those. But here goes, one overall general bio. Those of you reading this that frequent the forums here at Page Chewing are likely to already be aware of me to some extent.
Who?
For those that don’t, I’m Thomas J. Devens, author of the Fall of Emros and Vermin of the Old Empire series of gritty fantasy books. And part-time drunken polar bear over at Dice Chewing.
I grew up in New York State, outside of Woodstock, the place where that festival didn’t actually happen. I spent my childhood obsessed with fantasy, regularly typing up shitty little stories on the typewriter. I’d like to hope my writing has improved since then…
My teen years I spent doing what teens do; being a degenerate and playing music… and working when I had to. Never was quite content. Striding into my early twenties, finally sick of the miserable job I had, I called it quits and wandered for a while.
Most of my early adult life was working and struggling and surviving and still being a bit of a degenerate if I’m honest about it. I worked a handful of jobs that I usually stayed at for a long time, mostly tradeswork and manual labor, and bounced from one place to another.
Now here I am, pushing 40 and more or less settled in. I finally rediscovered my love for fantasy (it had never really gone away, I just wasn’t reading a lot of it) about a decade back and eventually tried my hand at writing more seriously. Definitely better than those days on the typewriter. My body has taken its toll from the lifestyle of my past and is enjoying the calmer side of life.
But we all gotta work, and I’ve always worked with my hands, so I’m in a foundry now-a-days. It’s still hard labor, but it’s a good job. I live up in the Catskill Mountains of New York with my partner and our two dogs. We’re happy in this quiet place we call home.
Why?
Well… that’s a bit of who I am… now for what this is. So, what to expect from this here blog?
Honestly, I’m not entirely sure.
Kinda setting off to do this on a whim. As if I had an over-abundance of free time that had to get used up. Truth be told, I don’t. But I guess I tend to procrastinate by taking on more work. The sorta person that will start doing chores or fixing shit around the house half the time I sit down to try to write.
What?
So this will be a bit of an experiment. No schedule. No set format. There will be some posts relating to my books. Whether bits of worldbuilding, sneak peeks, exclusive stories, announcements, and hell… at least a bit of shameless self-promotion. But I’ll not let that be the focus.
I’d also like to highlight other folks’ works from time to time, even if it is just shouting “READ THIS!” and waving one of the many amazing authors’ books in y’all’s faces.
Other entries I may simply focus on a topic on my mind, generally related to reading/writing, but not exclusively. Why not bring up some music once in a while? Games? Stories of some weird shit that happened? Who knows? I’ll try to keep it interesting.
To sum it up, I guess this will be a bit of everything. Random essays on topics that pop into my mind. Whatever. And I’ll try to keep it to at least monthly. We’ll see.
Now, I know what you’re all asking yourselves.
Why in the hell did they give this guy blog permissions?
Well, damned if I know.
Until next time, I appreciate those of y’all that have kept reading through to this point,
Cheers all,
-Thomas
Song
And here’s a song… In fact, this is my guarantee, I will always end with a song, so keep your eyes out for that. Genres will vary! Maybe it will be related to what I wrote about in that entry. Perhaps it will just be one of those songs I’ve been having the urge to listen to over and over again at the time of writing. Or just something new to me, that I’d like to share with y’all. I’ve always liked introducing folks to new music, so why not continue that tradition.
Sam Doores- Silver & Gold
