I go by Critias pretty much everywhere, though a few of you may remember me as Talondel, and fewer still as my primary fake SIN, Russell Zimmerman.
I've been playing Shadowrun since '90 or so, some times more actively than others, but it was my first RPG and has always had a special place on my bookshelves...even before I met my wife through SR.
In recent years I've stumbled into freelancing -- through fanfiction, initially -- and have been having a good time making some money on the side with what is, basically, something I already did for fun. I've written multiple pieces for Warmachine/Hordes, Monsterpocalypse, was the primary writer for Spinespur: Threshold, did an Earthdawn piece (though one that never saw the light of day, sadly), and now I'm glad to finally be tickety-tacketing away at a keyboard for Shadowrun, after several false starts. I still have a lot of fun writing, and scrawl out a ton of stuff that's not written for any game company, so I'll be sharing stories every now and then in the fan fiction section right here.
The last year or two has seen me swapping back and forth from freelance writing to academic, since I finally got off my butt and wrapped up my Bachelor's (one last thing we needed to get done before my wife and I could move here to Texas). I've had some academic work published, presented research several times, and I'm currently hip-deep in working on my Master's, with the eventual plan of heading up a classroom of my very own someday. There are times the historian in me leaks out, whether I mean for it to or not.
When I'm not sitting at a keyboard and staring at a monitor, I'm running around with my three dogs and/or my wife, riding my motorcycle, or on my way to the shooting range. I practiced Jeet Kun Do and Kali for a couple years, but dropped it when I went back to college. I'm hoping to find a cool dojo somewhere around here, but it's just not a terrific priority for me at the moment. I make due with what I already learned and a heavy bag, when time permits.
