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Now this was a surprise, and a nice one too. Thank you very much Brandenburg III! As a token of gratitude, I’ll continue in your tradition of writing a short bio. Thank you all for your congratulations! I would also like to thank the readership of my current two active AARs, Empire of Fu Manchu and The III Reich in World War III. They are two very different bunches, but they share the enthusiasm and involvement in the story that makes every update a little bit of a fix for this writing junkie. Thank you guys – your motivation and feedback is everything for these stories!

Now, as for my history of writing, it’s inseparable in my mind from my history of reading. My dad grew up in Spain in the 40s and was into science fiction and fantastic stories. And small wonder, because those were the days of the Golden Age of Sci Fi, and of Weird Tales magazine, of Fu Manchu and Flash Gordon cinema serials, and The Shadow Radio shows - or at least it was when these things were becoming available in Spain. The genre stuck with him through the 50s and 60s, when he moved to work as a surgeon in Sweden and met my mom. When I was a boy, the bookcases at home were stuffed over with Asimov, van Vogt and Heinlein. These were my first love – but only when Robert E Howard told me his tall tales about a certain blue-eyed barbarian and I tasted the decadence and opulence of Clark Ashton Smith’s Zothique did I find my true love. There’s a third name missing together with those two, but dad wasn’t into horror, so it took another few years before Howard Percival Lovecraft joined his pen pals inside my head. I remember vividly the first of his stories that I read – The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. The macabre has a special appeal for youngsters.

In the midst of all that, Tolkien came waltzing in and enslaved me with the Lord of the Rings. Like many others here, I played RPGs, and it was as Game Master that got my first taste of weaving plots, description and a little bit of dialogue. In my early twenties, that culminated with a full length novel – in Swedish - that was essentially a Fantasy RPG adventure in narrative. I cringe today when I read it. I also wrote a few – very few – short stories, some of them in English, all of them abysmal. My writing interest was winding down as I left my twenties behind and reached my thirties. And then I came here.

My first real taste of writing in English came here, at the Paradox forums. It began with me buying Hearts of Iron. I had bought EU I before, and visited the forums, but only with HOI did I cast a glance at the AAR forum. I read a few AARs, got hooked and decided that I wanted some of that too. Where the Iron Crosses Grow was the result.

When that behemoth was finally completed I wanted a taste of something completely different. I decided to do something totally narrative, inspired by those pulp stories dad had told me about – Fu Manchu and the Shadow especially, and after mixing that with the Nazi’s and WW2 inseparable from the HOI scene, and with a good portion of HP Lovecraft, what came out was Master Plan of Fu Manchu, the sequel of which, Empire of Fu Manchu, I’m still typing away at.

I recently submitted my first short story for publication and anxiously await the veredict. If it hadn't been for all the help and feedback I got from Lord Durham, I doubt I would ever have dared to send it in. If doesn’t fly, I’ll keep at it and try again, hoping that I've learnt something. The love of writing is something that I picked up here and hopefully never will loose. So I might dream of moving on, but Paradox forums will always be where began to learn my trade and I don't see myself leaving anytime soon.

The Yogi, the man
I live in a small village between Stockholm and Uppsala called Knivsta (city of knives, worthy of REH methinks!) I’m married since 2001 with a girl I’ve been with since 1993 and we have three sons aged 5, 3 and 1 years respectively. I work as a financial administrator for the Swedish Government Board of Health and Education. We have a small house, a large Mercedes and pandemonium at all times we’re all at home. I write mainly at work and in the small hours of the night – all other hours are busy. Luckily I need very little sleep. But now it is finally time for some.

Goodnight, and thanks again!
 
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Congratulations, Aldriq & Brandenburg III first!

Brandenburg, thank you for posting your biography! I'm one of those crazy people who read the whole thing. :D Back in the beginning, I think, it was traditional, as you say, to offer a biography with receipt of the award. It's great to see it back!

The Yogi, Congratulations! Now, there are probably 10 or a dozen writers on this Forum who I consider to be professional quality writers -- people who should be able to get their work published if they tried. The Yogi is among the top 5 of those, and choosing between the five is so subjective that I hesitate, but The Yogi is definitely one of the five.

I remember my first exposure to your writing -- it was a scene of an Austrian (?) tank commander on the eastern front whose squadron had wandered into range of some Soviet anti-tank weapons that savaged the formation. The writing was so utterly vivid, and everything about the scene so absolutely perfect (I may be exaggerating a little, but not much) that I marked The Yogi for further reading later. Most of my reading of his stuff was when he asked readers to find their favorite Fu Manchu character, and I read most of the relevant posts with fascination. The Fu Manchu series was clever and creative in a way so completely different from the earlier deep, dark, smell-the-blood vividness of his other story that it just drew me in more. How he managed to work in all this pop culture and make it good enough to suspend my disbelief that James Bond and Otto Skorzeny and... do I remember Buck Rogers (???) could all be weaved into an interesting and nearly seamless storyline was quite amazing to me.

The Yogi -- great work! I hope everything works out with your short story, and that you'll go on to publish more. Well deserved!

Rensslaer
 
Great bio T_Y! Sounds like your father was a great influence. I mean, how many people have read the classic Zothique by CAS? Say, if you have any copies of the old Weird Tales lying around, specifically the Howard stuff, they're worth their weight in gold.
 
No such luck, LD. Only old, decrepit paper backs...

My week in the sun is over (long overdue, in fact:eek:o) and its time to pick a new WoW. I first intended to make a foray into the Rome AAR forum, but in the end my choice fell on a young writer who has been in the spotlight lately, and for good reasons. It was more than a year ago he last won this award, so I guess it's OK to pick him again now;

What if Stauffenberg failed to save the World? is an alt-hist extravaganza involving three separate timelines, ocultism, a syndicalist Hitler and a game forum where creative AAR writing is all the rage with the geeks. Trying to figure out what the hell is really going on is bloody fascinating!

So please step forward to recieve your Award, young Padwan Kurt Steiner!

wow.jpg
 
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Many congratulations Kurt (and Peti XD) Very well deserved ! :D
 
Oh gosh... Who's going to stand before Peti now...

Snif, snif...


Thanks a lot, gentlemen!!!!

PS: Remember to name a successor...
PS2: Now I'm in a hurry. Tomorrow, with luck -somebody remind me of that- I'll make a summary of all that that must be said about Peti. And something about me, of course.
 
I'm a little late, but I'm afraid I must protest The Yogi's award. He hasn't updated TEatL since 2006. :mad:

Congrats, Kurt. And congratulations on your cameo in Fu Manchu as well. I wonder if that has anything to do with this award. ;)
 
Well done Kurt Steiner :)
 
I'm a little late, but I'm afraid I must protest The Yogi's award. He hasn't updated TEatL since 2006. :mad:

Congrats, Kurt. And congratulations on your cameo in Fu Manchu as well. I wonder if that has anything to do with this award. ;)
And I can only get rewarded for TEATL? ;) As for Kurts cameo, it has to do with him gaining Character WritAAR of the week. But most importantly, I recently read "The Eagle has landed" and one thing lead to another...
 
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WritAAR of the Week AND Character WritAAR of the Week in the same week! That is impressive, KS. Congratulations. :)