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Profile of Phifty

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Current Residence: Right Outside of NYC
Interests: Writing of all types, Computers, Hacking, Graphic Design, Cyber-security
Favorite movies: Star Trek: First Contact, The Fifth Element, Waking Life, Tron
Favorite genre of music: Classic Rock
Favorite Book: Tie betwixt Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson and The Illuminati Trilogy whose authors I cannot remember.
Favorite Quote: Quis custodiet ipsos custodies? | -"Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what the say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something you will never forgive me for." -The Mentor "The Conscience of a Hacker"
Personal Quote: This quote copyright by Z-S Enterprises, 2004.
Z-S Enterprises categorically denies responsibility for whatever it is that you happen to be or not be upset with. In fact, Z-S Enterprises denies both this quote and its own existence and reserves the right to claim that it is the figment of your thoroughly demented imagination.
Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

Phifty is a recent member of DeviantArt, which he found after coming off a dissatisfied run in BlizzForums (where he created what will either be known eternally, or lost in the digital ether, as "The Forum Based Dungeons And Dragons Playing System" ) as well as other forums. He spent time right before joining (and during the first few months) trying to escape the plain and simple fact that he is a Science Fiction / Fantasy / Cyberpunk writer and there ain't nothing he can do about it. Phifty is a natural born speed-reader, which means that he spends too much time reading too many books.

When it comes to science fiction writing Phifty has a few solid thoughts on the matter that boil down to the below:
1. Any good sci-fi story should have some form of social / political / moral commentary.
2. A million blown spaceships and deadly marines don't create a story (note: forward that one to Hollywood please!)

When it comes to prose in general Phifty has a few other basic ideas:
1. Plot and Character are essential, all the flowery words in the world cannot hide it if your prose lacks both.
2. Plot should be structured, with a solid beginning, middle and end.
3. Characters should have some sort of depth least they (and their writers) become, in the words of one famous literary character, "phonies."
4. All fiction should be understandable to the average reader.
5. To make this a nice odd 5: Good Grammar and structure are essential to any writing aimed at more then yourself.

Phifty tends to be inspired by sleepless nights, Wired Magazine, and far to many books and metaphysic-crap floating around in his head. If caught in a more serious mood he will also add to his list of inspiration: Current events, the world at large, and his observations of said world and its inhabitants. When it comes to the why of his writing it tends to be for reasons varying from the need to make a point to the simple fact that a really good idea has been bouncing around his cranium for weeks and if he doesn’t do something about it he's going to go insane.

Phifty is also convinced that they are changing the rules of grammar specifically to spite him personally, as he has been made wrong by extremely recent changes twice in the past few months. Phifty is currently his own boss (aka very badly paid) working under his own entity Z-S Enterprises. He has spun himself off into an associate company: PhiftyNet E-Press, which he hopes will do for writers what DeviantArt's Prints technology has done for artists, using the latest in free e-printing technology.

When it comes to final bits of advice to anyone who likes to write:
Follow your instincts, do what you like. Forget all that "artistic" crap, just because a picture is a thousand words doesn’t mean I want to read a thousand words about a picture. When it comes down to it, a good plot and/or good characters can beat out flowery BS any day, just look at almost any bestseller! Artistic fiction is the sort of "meta-fiction" that was created as a take off (almost mockingly) of normal fiction and it is impossible to take off of something that you can't do yourself. Write what you know counts what you know how to write. Don't try and force yourself into some niche because everyone else is squeezed in there, trust me I've tried. In the end Plot is king and artistic prose (especially without a good plot) ends up in a box in the back of your nearest Barns & Nobles, if at all.

Phifty's sum total of work currently approaches about 400-500 pages (no you are NOT going to see the crap that takes up the first 100 or so) which he considers far too little. He has received two awards (one of which was from Penpushers! Huzah!) and had two pieces of work published independently, one on the web, the other in print.

He is currently working on two novels at once, one of which has stalled (Search Word) while the other (For The Spirits) has jumped ahead dramatically.

He is a touch typist, which is why this piece is far too long.

Needless to say Phifty has had a good deal of fun writing in the third person about himself and has, since writing this piece, determined that the world has gone mad.
This is a quirky auto-biographical piece that we didn't have the heart to edit. A very amusing read :)
© 2004 - 2024 penpushers
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Phifty's avatar
sooooo, I fav'ed it myself... don't tell anyone :P (After all, how many opportunities do you get to fav your own work :D ) Go Penpushers for inflating my ego! :-)