Where I am, what I do

I live in Allen, Texas, and I work in a clerical position at D.R. Horton.

Hobbies

I enjoy writing fan fiction (if you haven't guessed). I turn out the occasional poem, but not many. I enjoy science fiction in general, and I'm a big fan of Earth 2 and of Doctor Who in particular.

I'm a big fan of Snoopy. ☺ I adore the Peanuts comic strip. Charles Schulz had a wonderful sense of humor, and there's something so beautiful about the characters he drew and the rich colors he used. His drawings and characters are so full of life. I love the way his humor would start off in one direction and by the time you reach the last panel, it has veered off in another direction that no one could have seen coming.

In addition to Spirit's Space, which is my personal site, I maintain the web site for my family, www.nemanfamily.org. It contains family tree information and photographs.

I'm a huge fan of tennis player Monica Seles. I greatly admire swimmer Katie Ledecky and gymnast Simone Biles, two athletes who have dominated their sports so thoroughly words can't even describe it. I also admire figure skaters Sarah Hughes and Michelle Kwan, and basketball player Sue Bird.

I enjoy working the Friday and Saturday New York Times crossword puzzle. I'm pretty good at getting most of each puzzle without reference works.

I also greatly enjoy kakuro puzzles. I discovered kakuro when I was a child and was fascinated by them, although back then I knew them as cross sums. I'm so familiar with kakuro puzzles that I can read dozens of number combinations as easily as I read words. I play at Kakuro Conquest.

Almost every vacation I take is to a science fiction convention. Each February I attend the Doctor Who convention Gallifrey One in Los Angeles, and I love going on Doctor Who cruises when I can (which isn't often).

I also love the Olympics.

TV and Movies

A detailed description of my favorite television programs can be found here.

My favorite movie of all time is Stand By Me. Directed by Rob Reiner and based on the novella "The Body" by Stephen King, it's a film about four twelve-year-old boys growing up in 1950s small town America. It is so realistic, so on-target, it's astonishing.

My other favorite movies are The Lord of the Rings films, Glory, the Star Wars films, the Back to the Future trilogy, the Indiana Jones films, Silverado, Ladyhawke, the Terminator movies, the Lethal Weapon series, and Frozen, which I think is one of the most perfect movies ever made. I like comedies, such as films by the Monty Python alumni and Leslie Nielsen.

I also like good kung fu movies, with martial arts people spinning so fast you can hardly see what they do. I'll go see a Jackie Chan or a Jet Li movie any day. I absolutely adore Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and I love the action movie So Close so much that it has its own section on Spirit's Space.

I like anime, as well. My favorite anime film is Ghost in the Shell.

I'm also a big fan of Godzilla.

Books

My favorite author is Ray Bradbury. I fell in love with The Martian Chronicles when I was a boy and never looked back. I also adore Something Wicked This Way Comes and Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury's writing influenced my own. I have sections of prose in my stories in which I try to write something beautiful and lyrical. That comes from Mr. Bradbury.

Another author who influenced me deeply as I was growing up is Alistair MacLean. He wrote a ton of action and espionage novels, many of which were made into films. He's most famous for The Guns of Navarone and Force 10 from Navarone. I love the way he wrote action (at least in his earlier novels; his writing deteriorated as he got older), and it influenced how I wrote action scenes when I started writing. In my opinion, his greatest work is HMS Ulysses, a shocking book about the horrors of war, before such works were popular, based upon his experience in the British navy during World War II.

I also like Richard Adams's writing very much, having fallen in love with Watership Down (although I didn't like his novel Shardik). I love the work of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett, both very funny men. I really like the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin. Alfred Bester wrote some of the best science fiction I've ever read, including the award-winning The Demolished Man, a very fine novel. Mr. Bester knew how to tell a tale without wasting space, and The Demolished Man pulled the rug out from under my feet in a spectacular fashion. As a child, I fell in love with the Tripods series by John Christopher (the first of which is The White Mountains), and the Texan Star trilogy by Joseph A. Altsheler.

I absolutely adore The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Music

Here is my complete playlist (so far; there are so many more songs to add to it).

I'm a child of the '80s, so I like some of the pop rock from that time, but I can really listen to anything except punk, grunge, metal, or rap. I like songs that are fast with a good, fun rhythm, like "Breathless" by The Corrs (just about my favorite song of all time), "I Want You" by Savage Garden, "Soak Up the Sun" by Sheryl Crow, "Mony Mony" by Billy Idol, "Fliers" by Girls' Generation, and almost everything ABBA ever produced. I also like soft melodic songs, with nice piano playing or a Celtic feel. I can do without most of the hollow pop-radio love songs which are a dime a dozen, although I really like Air Supply, and if that's contradictory, so be it. Some artists I like are Billy Joel, Elton John, Journey, Asia, Amy Grant, and Enya. I love the song "Fields of Gold".

I'm also a sucker for the music of the Olympics. It makes me feel all goose-bumpy.

My favorite groups are The Corrs, Celtic Woman, The Gothard Sisters, and Girls' Generation.

I have a soft spot for the song "It Can't Be Too Late" by The Smubbs.

My two favorite solo singers, by far, are Loreena McKennitt and Vienna Teng. Quite simply, they both have a way with words and music which simply transcends this Earth and sends me to a better place. Their music is so easy on the ear that I can listen to it subconsciously while doing anything else in the world and still enjoy it 100%. Hearing their music is as natural as breathing. Vienna Teng's song "Lullabye for a Stormy Night" is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard.

The last track on Loreena McKennitt's album The Book of Secrets is a hauntingly beautiful tune called "Dante's Prayer", and I think it is the most gorgeous song in the world. The lyrics are:

When the dark wood fell before me, and all the paths were overgrown. When the priests of pride say there is no other way, I tilled the sorrows of stone. I did not believe because I could not see, though you came to me in the night. When the dawn seemed forever lost, you showed me your love in the light of the stars. Cast your eyes on the ocean, cast your soul to the sea. When the dark night seems endless, please remember me. Then the mountain rose before me, by the deep well of desire. From the fountain of forgiveness, beyond the ice and the fire. Cast your eyes on the ocean, cast your soul to the sea. When the dark night seems endless, please remember me. Though we share this humble path, alone, how fragile is the heart. Oh, give these clay feet wings to fly, to touch the face of the stars. Breathe life into this feeble heart, lift this mortal veil of fear. Take these crumbled hopes, etched with tears, and rise above these earthly cares. Cast your eyes on the ocean, cast your soul to the sea. When the dark night seems endless, please remember me. Please remember me.