Some examples of writing projects I've worked on.

Essays and Criticism

On an irregular basis I write critical essays (you know, blog posts) on my beehiiv newsletter, ill-defined. While I take different kinds of artworks as my subject there (it has the name it does for a reason), I find myself returning to video games as rich texts that don't often get the kind of critical interpretation they often deserve (and more interestingly for me, when they don't deserve). My proudest work in this area includes my essay comparing the hellscapes of Blasphemous and Signalis and my deep dive into the post-COVID zombie ethics of Dying Light. 

My critical writing was lucky enough to be published in Epoché, an online philosophy magazine, after I pitched an essay interpreting Rogue One: A Star Wars Story through the philosophy and criticism of Terry Eagleton and other philosophical and literary thinkers.

Not all my writing is presented as words on a screen! I produced a series of audio essays for my solo podcast Inside the Text, available on Spotify (ew) and other podcast distributors. My favorite work on that podcast was a three-part series on the moral function in fiction, but I also have a soft spot for my episode on the history and politics of daylight savings. Episodes range from 30 minutes to an hour in length, which I wrote, recorded/performed, and edited, in addition to composing original music for some segments.

For a few years I maintained a YouTube channel, Electric Didact, publishing video essays inspired by the likes of PBS Idea Channel, Nerdwriter, and Jacob Geller. Among my best work in this regard was a late video about the militaristic gender politics of Disney's Mulan (1998). The channel reached over 6,000 subscribers at its peak, and the Mulan video was by far the most watched in part because it was framed as a response to a prompt from another YouTuber, FilmJoy. As with my work on Inside the Text, I wrote, recorded/performed, and edited all of my videos.

Fiction

I've had short fiction published on a number of online outlets, most of them smaller independent journals. I published several with the flash fiction publisher 365tomorrows ("The Autodidact," "Apocalypse On Time", "Yes Fever," and "The Faithful Epilogue"). 

Other, longer stories were published in:

• Bewildering Stories ("Quantified Man", "Eyes for the Inquisitor's Children")

• Swamp Biscuits & Tea ("Birdbeaks of Light")

• New Dead Families ("Sinkhole Season")

• The New Accelerator Anthology Book 3 ("Phobian")

• Bastion Science Fiction Magazine Issue 8 ("Playing in the Skeleton on Riot Day").

Articles and Reportage

During my time at Modern Machine Shop magazine, I had the opportunity occasionally to write original articles for the website. When I had this chance, I was interested in sharing stories about how shops trained and treated their workers and contributed to their communities, like in my piece "Hiring, Training and Supporting the Workforce in School and on the Job," which was based on a factory visit I made on location in Virginia. 

I wrote another, longer, more critical piece after that Virginia trip reflecting on my visits to different manufacturers while hosted by the state Chamber of Commerce, called "Improvement Versus Reinvention: Impressions from Virginia."