The Art of Being Dorian

The Art of Writing

I enjoy writing and telling stories.  And I do a lot of writing in professional, academic, technical, personal and fictional styles.  Over the years, I’ve written many articles and started a few novels.  Below is just a small sample of my better writing.

Novels & Short Stories

• A Collection of Shards - [In progress] – In the near future, on a Earth ravaged by nuclear war.  A rogue drone swarm attacks and brings down a convoy of military transport superjets.   The military sends out a small force to rescue the survivors, retrieve the crucial supplies and deal with the new threat.  But first a mercenary and an intelligence officer must go on a stealth reconnaissance mission to gather information about the swarm.  This mission takes them deep into the ruins of  a dead city with a dark past and a lethal secret.
• Echoes in the Endless - [In progress] – Humanity’s first interstellar manned spacecraft makes its way toward a seed colony in the Gliese 581d.  As the sleeper ship flies through the interstellar void, two colonists meet in virtual reality and plan to meet in person.  Along the way they discover the secret plans for the colony and the fate of Earth.
• Under a Clear Cold Night Sky (working title) - [Planned] – A story for a fictional child, Claire about the fate of humanity when the Sun mysteriously stopped existing.

Articles and Reviews on Free Software

• A Free Society Needs a Free Market and Free Software – An blue skies article about the need of freedom in the market economy and in software, to help the continuation and increase of liberty for society in general.
• Review of Ontario Linux Fest 2009 – A review and summary of notes of my attendin OLF2009.
• KDE & Linux: An Explanation for the Uninitiated – An article introducing new users to the Linux operating system and KDE desktop environment.
• Two-Part Review of the Ubuntu 7.10 Beta release – Part 1: Initial Impressions, Part 2: Settling in with Gutsy
• The Penguin and the Rusty Wrench – A howto guide to fix a Linux-XOrg screen resolution problem on Toshiba Satellite 2410 notebooks.

Articles on Game Theory and Design

• Serenity in Gaming – An article on the use of ambiance and game play to develop a serene organic feel in games.  Reviews Jenova Chen’s Flow.
• Gaming: Simplicity, Good Graphics and Open Source Gaming – An article on the effective use of graphics in games.
• Retro-gaming: Torus Trooper – Short review of the Torus Trooper game.