Bio Thread: Introduce Yourselves

[Jim]

Introduce yourselves, everyone. Authors, feel free to use this thread to describe your works, either past or upcoming, to the rest of the members. Now is also a good time to describe how you see the relationship between philosophy and fiction.

[Drew]

Hey. I'm Drew and I'm active duty navy and a self published author. I live in Virginia with my family. I grew up in Mississippi. Also if anyone is interested in reading a free PDF of my book Dead Planet in exchange for an honest review let me know. drewavera@gmail.com

[Erika]

Hi everyone!

My name is Erika, I'm an espionage author who lives in Seattle. Not sure I can claim any especial insight into philosophy in fiction, but I'm a lifelong reader and that has to count for something, right?

Glad to meet all of you!

[Keith]

I'm Keith Skinner. I write narrative travel stories and creative non-fiction. I'm halfway through my debut novel, a historical novel set on the mid-19th century Mendocino (CA) coast.

Thanks for inviting me.

[Jim]

Welcome, everyone. Good to meet you all.

[Jim]

Jeanie wrote: "My personal philosophy sneaks into my main characters(male or female) without my realizing it. I write to entertain, but my outlook on life always comes through in unexpected and subtle ways. "

So often the way. Welcome.

[Florence]

I'm Florence Witkop and I've been writing confession stories for years and years and years and am now self-publishing novels. I've always thought it funny that when I would write what actually happened, it was usually rejected as being 'unrealistic' but if I fictionalized real life, it was purchased as 'very true.'
So is it a rule or something that reality can't be shown through reality? I think fiction and philosophy are twins but I've never known just how.

[[deleted user]]

Hi - I'm Anita Felicelli and I write novels. I don't think there's usually all that much intersection between philosophy and contemporary American fiction, though it's exciting to see that changing with indie/small press publishing. Philosophers I love - Bachelard, Merleau-Ponty, Arendt. Fiction writers I love - Kafka, Calvino, Winterson, Oyeyemi. Lots of crossover of ideas, but the latter is more entertaining (to me anyway).
Good to meet you guys.

[Alan]

Hi. Thank you for inviting me to join your group. Nice to be here. My name is Alan and I am published author of Kindle paranormal books. Don't know if I am allowed to mention my website here, though, so have left it, as I would not want to be accused of spamming.

[C.M.]

Hi all my name is Cassie. I've been writing and blogging for a few years and working on my YA novel. Really enjoy learning the craft. Avid reader of fiction and non-fiction, my kindle is never far away.

I feel that fiction and philosophy are tied together by experience and human nature. Philosophy in and of itself is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Fiction usually explores these studies by characterization and conflict to move a story forward. Well that's my 2 cents anyway. :)

[Rebecca]

I'm Rebecca. Nice to meet you all--writers and readers, fantastic! I write about wild and human nature. Author of a new short story collection, a novel, several works of nonfiction. Some of my favorite writers are philosophers--John Grady, Kathleen Dean Moore.

[Jim]

Glad to see you all here, Alan, Cassie, Rebecca, Anita, and Florence. Feel free to dive into the July question. I and the other participants there would love to hear your thoughts.

[Sarah]

Hi...I'm Sarah and I read, I write, I play...hard!

I enjoy reading nearly every genre, but my favorites are YA and science fiction. As an author, I've also dabbled in fantasy and contemporary romance. Naturally, I like to play with words, but I also play with my kids and occasionally my piano.

I'm lafleurdeplume on all social media platforms.

[Jim]

Hi, Sarah, glad to meet you. I look forward to reading your contributions.

[C.J.]

Hello all,

CJ from Las Vegas. Former religious believer now atheist.

If interested I recently released a fictional post-apocalypse Sci-Fi story that explores belief in God from the perspective of humans and artificial intelligence. Some have criticized the book (but praised the writing) because the characters were too "philosophical". In my opinion the existence of God affects everyone and everything and should be considered by all beings, real and synthetic. The story is free to read if you want to check it out. Would love to get some feedback.

Enter Ruinland https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

Thanks,
CJ

[Drew]

I have a similar story CJ. Mine might take a different take. It's about faith in a God in the context of civil war on an alien planet involving humans, an alien race, and hybrids. Mine is also free http://m.barnesandnoble.com/w/soulmat...

[Nicole]

Hi! I'm Nicole, from the Philippines.

For a long time, the spectrum of genres of books that I read was only narrowed down to the Young Adult section, and it has always been my guilty pleasure to read dystopian, even now. Only recently have I been into the truly philosophical novels, but I did realize that even those books that do not try to be philosophical sometimes still hold a handful of insights in them, whether the author is conscious of it or not, because your writing can be telling of the way with which you look at things, at life.

But I am going off-tangent. I have always leaned towards fiction rather than non-fiction when it comes to reading, and it has bothered me for quite a while. How can I prefer the unreal over what is real? How can I prefer imagined stories over true circumstances? And so far, the only answer I have provided for myself is that fiction pushes the boundaries of what we normally know. It forces us to understand things from a different perspective, and perhaps, that is also what I think the answer is to the inquiry into the link between philosophy and fiction.

(I'm sorry for the lengthy "introduction," but nice to meet you all!)

[Alex]

I'm Alex. Below is a campaign for my first novel.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...

Please spread the word about this project. Funding period ends 9.19.14. Funding goal $5200.

Book: When the Lights Flicker Out
A novel about a family of women exploring their cursed lives and harrowing deaths.

Author: Alex Miceli
Award-winning and published writer.

Website: www.playspoemsprose.com

Visit link at the top for more details about project and author. Thank you for any interest, contributions, or promotion of the project.

[Jim]

Alex wrote: "I'm Alex. Below is a campaign for my first novel.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...

Please spread the word about this project. Funding period ends 9.19.14..."

Thanks for informing us about your campaign, but I think readers of the thread would be more interested in hearing your thoughts on the intersection of philosophy and fiction, and about you as a person.

Though the invitation to talk about our works is stated above, I'd rather it not be just about that. (And, as a tip, it's a bit off-putting when a person asks a group for support and promotion before they've contributed to the group's topics. Such people rarely win support that way.)

[Jim]

Nicole wrote: "Hi! I'm Nicole, from the Philippines.

For a long time, the spectrum of genres of books that I read was only narrowed down to the Young Adult section, and it has always been my guilty pleasure to ..."

Nice to meet you too, Nicole. Welcome.