Hi Folks,
My name is Victor and I only publish non-fiction and fiction under my real name--likewise on other writers' sites. I'm a professor of legal studies at a research university so most of my professional writing is non-fiction related to my primary field. But I started writing fiction and poetry in my early teens. My output is modest (two books of poetry, three short story collections and most recently a novel).
I prefer classic poetry to modern poetry, though I write both. In fiction, my favorite authors are primarily in hard and soft science fiction (Niven, Heinlein, Pournelle, Clarke, Barnes, Frank Herbert, . . .) and fantasy/sword and sorcery (Roger Zelazny, Robert Jordan, Ursula Le Guin, Terry Goodkind, Anne McCaffrey, George RR Martin, Dean Koontz, Stephen King, . . .). My preference runs to authors whose stories have depth and characters that are relatable (the good, the bad and the downright ugly) and will leave us thinking once their story is done.
On a personal level, my interests are wide ranging as is my formal and informal education (natural science, social sciences, liberal arts and law). I am a very good cook who primarily gravitates to the cuisine of Italy and Spain but enjoys every food group and appreciates the wonderful diversity in food and all things the world offers--save for bugs of any kind as a protein source. Music is also important to me, though my hearing is limited these days, and I love to sing and play music though not in public. I am a decent mechanic and built computers from parts in the early days of the PC revolution, and still maintain and upgrade my computers and electronic gadgets.
What I post here is a bit off the beaten path for this site. My novel,
Hire Lernin', is fiction based on my actual experience at the start of my academic career as the dean of a for-profit school of business in New York City in the late 1980s in circumstances that closely parallel those of the protagonist. It has drama, romance, humor and a personal quest from a protagonist who sets out to accomplish what he is repeatedly told is impossible. I am porting it online here after having uploaded the complete novel to Royal Road in both the original English and my new Spanish translation. I also ported my latest complete book of short stories to Royal Road (Echoes of the Mind's Eye) which is an eclectic mix of speculative fiction that includes hard and soft SF, psychological thrillers, romance, humor, with connecting threads to the nature of reality and the interplay between the duality of human nature with our feet firmly planted in clay and our eyes always looking skyward yearning to fly. I am posting a number of the short stories here individually as well. When permitted to do so based on an acceptable number of posts, I will add these to my signature line. For now, if you read any of my fiction here I would welcome your comments, ratings and/or reviews.
My fiction is widely available in book form at most book sellers, but as I'm sure is true of most of us here, I just want to be read. As a New York attorney, writing (including my textbooks published through traditional publishers) is the least productive use of my time in terms of earning income. If I choose to go back to my law practice tomorrow, I will bill my time at more than $400 an hour and have more clients than I can serve. Writing is a labor of love and perhaps a sign of mental illness or at least impaired judgment. But I would not have it any other way.