The Bar

[Daniel Hatadi]

Most forums have a post that serves as an entry point for new members, a place for them to introduce themselves. At Crimespace, that post is The Bar.

As a way of starting it off, I'll introduce myself.

My name is Daniel and my favourite colour is black. Half Romanian, half Croatian, I was born and bred in Australia, the country I've spent most of my life in. Got a degree in Computer Science and by day I'm a programmer in the shady field of gaming. Yes, I program poker machines. This does not mean I carry around a Bat-utility belt and rush over to clubs when people don't get paid. It's an office job, plain and simple. I stare at computer screens all day.

By night, and during my lunch hour, I write. Mostly crime, but I'm not afraid to venture outside the genre if the story I want to tell goes that way. Even then I'd say my fiction straddles the border between crime and other genres. I've only been writing solidly for about the last three years, the first two of which were spent on a comedic P.I. novel set in Sydney. Like many writers, that novel was my journeyman piece, in that it taught me how to write a novel (which is not to say I've stopped learning). Also like many writers, I don't think I want it to ever see the light of day.

I've since moved on to a novel that if I had to describe in one sentence, would sound something like this: "An unwilling hitman becomes part of a crime syndicate that reaches back to turn-of-the-century Sydney." Part crime thriller, part historical dream sequence, with elements of the supernatural. I'm about two thirds of the way through the first draft and I'm getting a big kick out of writing something more serious.

A few short stories of mine are floating around the net and I have a list of those on my profile page. In the interest of brevity, I'll leave it at that.

Now. Who wants a drink?

[Steve Allan]

Hi. I'm Steve. My favorite color is green. Part Scottish and part Passamaquoddy Indian (feathers, not dot). I like to write. I have some stories out there that people seem to have liked. I've had one stalker already (seriously). I'm working on two novels at the moment, because I'm an idiot. One is set in downeast Maine and the other in a fictional New England city - both are dark and violent. I have a degree in Political Science (which I've done nothing with) and an MFA degree in Popular Fiction from the University of Southern Maine, where I had the pleasure to study under Dennis Lehane, Roland Merullo, James Patrick Kelly, David Anthony Durham, Joyce Maynard, Jenny Siler and some other people you've never heard of. Currently I work at the Wabanaki Center at the University of Maine where I get to approve and deny Indian (again, feathers not dot) student waivers. I'm married and have two kids, ages three and six-months. I've seen The Exorcist about three-hundred times and it keeps getting funnier everytime I see it! (Oh wait, that's Beetlejuice). I've been known to blog on occasion. Oh, I also have a brain tumor which causes me to flop on the floor every once and a while - good exercise; keeps me in shape.

Now, waht about that drink?

[Sandra Ruttan]

Steve, I thought you weren't going to tell anyone! I've been working really hard to get over my obsession with you, honest!

[Steve Allan]

Oh, if I knew it was you I wouldn't have bought that gun.

[Jack Getze]

Hey, Dan. Steve. Where's that bartender? It's a little early in the day, but tequila for breakfast doesn't sound bad.
Ah, here's that barkeep. A shot of Herradura, please.
By way of introduction, I'm mostly Scotish, but with a German name because Getze men always had lots of boys. I hated school but wanted to write, so I got a copyboy job with old Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. That was 1965. Started writing my first novel in 1968. Which means I was writing unpublished novels longer than many of you have been alive. Big Numbers, my debut just out this month, is actually my 11th novel. I am one of those very lucky people who, right this minute, is living his dream.
So as my 22-year-old son would say, "'Sup, dudes?"
Oh. Who's this walking over?

[Christa M. Miller]

I'm Christa. My favorite color is also green although I am partial to all the jewel tones. I am finishing up on rewrites to my first novel, though if I don't get any takers this time around, I suppose I will have to call it my journeyman novel and start over. *sigh* Fortunately, I have three others in mind, one of which I started work on last year.

Because I now have a 3-year-old and a 3-month-old, and thus no energy to work on said novel, I've been focusing on short stories. One has been published, one is about to be, and a few landed at Flashing in the Gutters. Like Daniel, I cross genres, but unlike Daniel (and Mindy and Ann and...), I can't do comedy to save my life. So my "other" genre is horror.

I have a husband who also writes crime fiction and horror, but doesn't have the time to revise them. We'll work on that this summer!
Meanwhile: nursing. I'll take a club soda... I guess... if I have to... *sigh*

[Sandra Ruttan]

My name is Sandra and my favourite colour is green. I feel unoriginal already.

I'm an author. My first book was published in January, and I've had short stories published in Out of the Gutter (the print short story collection), Crimespree Magazine, The Cynic, Demolition, Mouth Full of Bullets... and I have something coming soon from Crime Scene Scotland.

I'm an editor with Spinetingler Magazine and I do a lot of reviews and interviews there.

I've been known to blog from time to time. I think I've changed the template as many times as I've posted. Once in a blue moon I'll turn up on a forum or list and post a comment but usually I'm a bit antisocial. I live in western Canada in a house filled with animals: 2 dogs, 7 cats, 1 spouse. I partially severed my right foot when I was a child. In three separate accidents I've been hit by a car. I don't leave the house now because I'm fairly certain I've used up my quota of luck and the next time I'm toast.

*One of the above comments may not be entirely true. But this is a bar and I've been drinking.

[Daniel Hatadi]

Fancy meeting you here. I knew you'd be one of the first to The Bar. ;)

One's not true? I know, I know! You're ... not toast! No. Wait. You are toast!

[Sandra Ruttan]

Yes, I'm toast. ;)

[Merrill Young]

You too, Sandra?
I was hit by a car when I was 19.
Word to the wise- crosswalks are NOT just for wimps.

[Paul Guyot]

Three inches of Beam and a beer back.

[Jack Getze]

A cross between Bridget Jones and Mike Hammer works for me, Nikki.

[M.G. Tarquini]

Me, too.