Michael Tinker Pearce sounds off

Thought some of you might like this- from my other blog:

http://www.theswordgeek.com/podcast/?p=139

First, foremost and always I am Linda Pearce's partner in life.  And her coauthor and husband. And her most devoted fan.

Who else am I?  I am a professional knife and sword-maker.  I am a student of Historic European Martial Arts.  A recreational shooter.  A classic car enthusiast.  A technophile. An ex-cop. An outspoken proponent of traditional Conservative values- meaning that I bear no resemblance or relationship to the current Republican Party.  I'm an avid supporter of civil rights, gay marriage and equal rights for ALL people. I'm a veteran. I have PTSD. I am a dog and cat owner.

Oh yes, I'm also an author.

I didn't mean to be an author.  I mean, I did write and sell some short fiction in the early 90's, but after getting an inside look at publishing I gave up any ambitions to be a writer and turned my attention to making knives and swords. Of course I went to online forums about swords and wrote about them.  Then I started writing about my other interests- classic cars, firearms, cooking, politics.  I wrote tens, hundreds of thousands of words.  People started bugging me to write a book about swords.  In 2007 I hurt my back and was going to be off my feet for a couple of weeks.  The only comfortable place in the house was my office chair. So I wrote 'The Medieval sword in the Modern World.'  Two publishers were interested, but realizing that there were literally tens of dollars to be made we decided to self-publish, first as an eBook then as a Print-on-Demand book through Lulu.com.  It was quite successful for a niche book.  A few years later I updated it with a second edition.  Both books are available through Amazon and still sell regularly.  But I still didn't consider myself an author.

I have a lot of ideas, and a lot of time to think about them while working in my shop. I dabbled with writing a novel, but I wasn't a real writer.  That novel still isn't finished... some day, some day...  Then my interest in swords led me to fall in with Writers,  some of them quite prominent authors. Then consulting with them on projects related to swords and swordsmanship.  Eventually I worked as a consultant on the project that became 'The Mongoliad.'  When Amazon's imprint 47North bought 'The Mongoliad' they sent out a call for Novella's set in the world of that book.  The writers group, known as 'The Farm' sent out a list of ideas for stories.  my wife liked one of the ideas and said, "Let's give it a shot.'  That story became 'The Shield Maiden,' part of the Foreworld Sidequests series. 

Linda and I discovered that we really enjoyed writing together, so much so that we resurrected an old story idea and wrote our first novel together.  On the unanimous advice of our author friends we self-published 'Diaries of a Dwarven Rifleman' early this year (2013.)  Because of the popularity of 'The Shield Maiden' we were asked to write a second Foreworld saga novella, 'Tyr's Hammer,' which was published on Oct 1st of this year.  This year we've also self-published several short stories and a companion novella to 'Diaries of a Dwarven Rifleman.'  We're deep (31K+ words) into our next novel, a military science fiction piece called 'Rage of Angels.'  I also write 'the Sword Geek' blog and our author's blog at Michaeltinkerpearce.com.  Now I have another blog here. Just what I needed...

Because of medical issues I don't make many swords or knives anymore, and when asked recently what I do I answered, "I'm an author" without thinking about it. It was a sad and shocking- yet strangely thrilling- moment.  

I read historic, heroic, epic and contemporary fantasy, science-fiction, mysteries, horror, techno-thrillers, westerns and whatever else strikes my fancy.  

I like Dr.Who, Star Trek, Babylon Five, Farscape, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2 and lots of other things, but I'm not fawn-boyish about any of them.  

My taste in music is eclectic, but currently I'm particularly fond of The Crüxshadows.

I'm thinking about buying a motorcycle.

So, that's me.   Who are you?