Evan's Bio

Drop me a line if you have been to unusual places. I have been to various parts of Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, and the UK and have lived for weeks at a time in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK; in the U.S., I have spent at least a few days in California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusets, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia (only a day or less in Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin).

I do use Pager, but I do not like to publish it (once the cat's out of the bag and all...), so send me an e-mail first if you want the number so I can get to know you ;-) I'm not a snob about screening people to see if they're "worthy" to be given my #. I just do not want it posted outright.

Q & A

Why didn't you send me a reply to my e-mail? Do you even bother to reply?
I reply to everything I am sent. The common problems I run into are as follows:
a) You wanted a reply in one day. Well, I do work and write in my spare time, so e-mail comes in sixth or so. Expect as much as a few days due to my priorities, the weird times I get online, how in depth of an answer your e-mail requires (I may put aside long e-mails until I have time to reply properly).
b) You sent a really huge file (perhaps with a photo or story). In this case, the e-mail may have been bounced back to you which may take several days or I may be evaluating your story. Solution: I may be able to accept the attachment via ICQ if we can get online at the same time; otherwise, shrink/zip your file or send me a short note asking if I can make room in my mailbox.
c) You gave me an incorrect return address. This has only happened once, but it mystified me since I had no other way of replying to this person. E-mail me again to ask what happened if you do not hear from me in a week.
d) You did not send your original e-mail to the correct address.

Did you send me a form reply?
Not as far as I know. My answer to your e-mail depends on what you wrote. If you did not ask any questions or only asked some with short answers, the your reply may be short. If I am asked the same question by a lot, I have an unfortunate tendency to repeat myself since I have a fairly good memory, but I assure you that any similarity between what I sent you and a friend of yours is unintentional.

Will you read a story I wrote?
Sure, but try to send it as RTF/TXT/HTML (i.e. nothing too specialized like Word Perfect/Works/Word Gazillion). Give me a few guidelines as to what kinds of comments you want/don't care about; are you interested in flowing dialogue, predictability, grammar, etc.? I am usually constructive rather than negative, but please say something if you thought I was really harsh. I probably just miswrote.

So are your characters actually real (or based on real) people? You, perhaps? How about the experiences?
Well, the characters are realistic in that they contain attitudes, mannerisms, or qualities of people I have met, but they are not dopplegangers. It is more fair to say that my characters are more composites of people I know rather than being a point-for-point match for just one. Yes, I do put parts of myself in the main character, but even the main character is not me but a melange, and I also appear in ways in other characters.
I try to make the stories' events realistic and base some on actual events, but the particulars, at the very least, are fiction.

Boxers or briefs?
Erm...boxer-briefs :-)