Writing
Land of Youth & Beauty: Early Poems
This book collects my poems so far. Written over more than two decades, they explore life in all its hues, dark and light and the rainbow in between:
A marionette’s dream, a pair of sonnets, a bayou tragedy, whirling donuts, nocturnes and nightmares, encounters in the dark and in sunlit moments…
Above and through all of it shimmers the greatest thing of all: the Land of Youth & Beauty — the magic theatre we enter when we love and feel truly loved.
“This happened when the world was young and love could never die, when the skies flamed every morning and it rained every night…”
Available in two distinct editions:
1) The original, smaller edition, which is available as a hardcover, a paperback, and an ebook. 142 pages.
2) The Large Print Edition, set in a large, 18-point sans serif font, for anyone with low vision or who may just prefer the larger dimensions and font size or want this edition for the extras, namely a section featuring the sheet music for my composition “Land of Youth & Beauty” and a catalogue section showcasing my creative works so far in various fields.
This is the first of my books to be published also in a large print edition. It’s available as a hardcover, a paperback, and an ebook. 188 pages.
At Dawn: Early Short Stories
My first collection of short stories. Written over a period of many years, they explore many fields:
Prose poetry, youthful night adventure, introspective science fiction, philosophical horror, chaptered dream exploration, humorous biographical detective fiction, seafaring sequel to one of a very young H. P. Lovecraft’s stories, fragments…
Available in two distinct editions:
1) The original, smaller edition (published in 2022), which is available as a hardcover, a paperback, and an ebook. 348 pages.
2) The Large Print Edition (2024), set in an extra large, 24-point sans serif font, for anyone with low vision or who may just prefer the larger dimensions and font size.
This is the second of my books to be published also in a large print edition. It’s available as a hardcover, a paperback, and an ebook. 418 pages.
Both editions come with the 2022 afterword plus some reflections and dates for each story.
Art & Love, Vol. 1
A collection of 124 of my short non-fiction writings from over the years. With the books in this series, you can never know what the next confection-sized, elegantly crafted chapter will be about. Available as a hardcover, a paperback, and an ebook.
The first in a series of books with each volume featuring 124 sharp chapters on things and people that have brought warmth and meaning into the author’s life and that he wants to help others discover. A light, refreshing treasury of appreciations, thoughts, anecdotes, memories, observations, dreams, recommendations, love letters, and humorous asides, all crafted to nourish and maybe even inspire your own creativity.
What Now with Simo, Season 3
The hardcover, paperback, and ebook of the Season 3 transcripts of my podcast What Now with Simo are on Amazon.
This pivotal season includes long, in-depth discussions with two legendary figures: actor & writer David Lee Homb and composer & artist Pierre Estève.
Also featured in this third volume of the series: an introduction, numerous footnotes offering further commentary and information, detailed tables of contents, and some surprise extras.
430 pages, with the transcripts of the discussion episodes checked and verified by David himself and Nicole Etter for the two episodes with David Lee Homb, and by Pierre himself for the four episodes with Pierre Estève.
You Never Know What You’ll See in the Haunted Garden
You Never Know What You’ll See in the Haunted Garden, Vol. 1 introduces us to the Haunted Garden with a series of visions. Vol. 2: The Mystery of the Chessboard Circus involves Rex the retired game actor, Pregnant Horse of Lascaux, and Alannah the butterfly in an adventure where the visions find form in a series of events. Vol. 3…? Each volume is available as a hardcover, a paperback, and an ebook.
Games
Before I started publishing and releasing my own works, I wrote and did other types of text work for four internationally released games:
• Jane Jensen’s Gray Matter (2010),
• Kids Learn Spelling and Grammar: A+ Edition (2012, for the Nintendo DS handheld console),
• Galaxy on Fire: Alliances (2013), and
• Serena (2014).
My MobyGames profile doesn’t yet feature all these credits, so in order to learn fully about my contributions to each title, please connect with me on LinkedIn to see all the details. In summary:
• Gray Matter: additional writing (loading screen texts, a scientific article on the brain — here my psychology studies came in handy — and book titles) and checking all in-game texts: proofreading and conforming the subtitles to the final recorded lines of dialogue. I also performed quality assurance, submitting several hundred bug reports.
• Kids Learn Spelling and Grammar: A+ Edition: I was the main writer for this English adaptation for the North American market of what was originally a game for learning German. Since the particular learning challenges of these languages are very different, this meant writing most of the texts in the game from scratch.
• Galaxy on Fire: Alliances: with this game I was involved only in the early concept stages, during which I came up with the basis for an alien language and wrote a whole short story that has so far never been published, called “The Rise and Fall of the Old Ones”. Since I don’t own this intellectual property — the game or any work that went into it — I’m not sure about the legal status of this story in terms of publishing.
• Serena: here I made my greatest and most personally fulfilling writing contribution out of these games. I was part of a team of four writers and wrote more than a third of the dialogue, a mysterious four-verse poem, and two letters. I later published the poem, “Oisín and Niamh”, in my book Land of Youth & Beauty: Early Poems. Finally, I revised all texts for consistency together with designer, lead writer, and team leader Agustín Cordes. In this game I also planted the first appearance of the title of my upcoming screenplay, Dream of Snow.
All four images copyright © the respective owners. Used here only for purposes of illustration.
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