Meet
the Moderator
BJ Steeves
©2003, BJ Steeves
am the lead moderator of the Computer Geeks Corner, and co-moderator of several
other boards on the site. I am also one of the "technical" support
members for the site. I found Holly's site a little over two years ago. After a
year or so, Holly asked me to become a staffer on the board, and to be one of
her tech people. Apparently, she liked the contributions and the support I had
made to the site and asked me to become a moderator.
I
guess the first stirrings of the urge to write began when I first started to
learn to read. I was always
interested in looking up at the night sky, and would read astronomy books about
the planets and the stars. I
constantly dreamed about traveling from planet to planet, then from galaxy to
galaxy, and finally universe to universe. This
was the real beginning of my fixation with science fiction.
I find that I have many favorite authors in the field, and it seems that
my current favorite author changes each time I read a new book or as I re-read
an old favorite for the umpteenth time.
It
wasn't until I read The Hobbit and the
Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R.
Tolkien that I began to explore the fantasy genre.
I had only read The Hobbit because my English teacher, for my freshman year in high
school, gave it to the class as an assignment.
Before that time, I had previously considered fantasy to be just so much
"mumble-jumble." I would
probably never have been exposed to this type of writing if I hadn't been forced
through that door. Now I willingly
leave that door wide open, and constantly run through that open doorway, just as
often as I can.
Also,
I became interested in computers about this time, real and make-believe.
This interest became a hobby and then my career as my interest in the
computer field grew. I spent eight
years in the armed services, troubleshooting and maintaining computers, and
writing game programs when no one was watching... or so I believed.
I still work with computers and I currently own several at home.
I
picked up a guitar while in the service, and learned some basic chords.
After going to work full time, I stored it away for a long time.
Currently, I am trying to learn to play keyboard instruments.
I have a midi keyboard hooked to a computer and a stand-alone organ.
I have managed to drag out that old twelve string to see if I still
remembered the few chords I learned years ago.
With all the full time hours from my job, there's more dust on them than
I like, but I keep trying.
Since
those star gazing days -- and the reading of my first science fiction story, Robbie
by Isaac Asimov -- I thought that some day I would write my own science fiction
book. I played a little with the
writing, but I didn't get serious until a couple of years ago. Maybe hitting the big 50 made me realize that I had let
something I wanted to do slip away. I
started searching the net for anything on writing, and I stumbled onto Holly's
site. I have been here at Forward
Motion ever since.
I
currently have a work in progress, and another in the planning stages.
Working full time does not leave much time for other things, but I do get
some writing in. With all the
technical computer work during the day, I find that working on the more creative
side of things, such as writing or practicing some keyboard or guitar, is a good
balance of mind and soul.
My
main goal is to get one good story published.
Do I want to make writing a full time career?
Definitely! But I am also a
realist. In order to go from A to
Z, you need to go through all the other letters of the alphabet.
So I will concentrate on A
first, and then pick off the rest of the letters one at a time.
I may not get all of them, but I will get some of them.
Besides, I was never really fond of using contractions in my writing
unless necessary.