Since I got tagged by Nienke with the Thinking Blogger Award I’m now obligated to pass the award on to others:

• SF Signal – Being a sci-fi junkie I can never get enough of their news and skiffy ponderings.
• Deep Genre – Always interesting heads-up to writerly news, with thoughtful commentary.
• Marketing For Authors – Bridges the gap between the wild-haired hippies and the hawkish suits.
• Complications Ensue – Alex Epstein’s blog. Can’t stay away after reading his Crafty TV Writing and Crafty Screenwriting books.
• Jane in Progress – TV producer and writer Jane Espenson’s blog. Tips on keeping your story chops sharp as well as industry insights.

I don’t know if some of these will be swayed by our little writer community tagging games, but since I’m not above such things yet I figured I’d give it a try on the chance that they aren’t either. As for those of you who may feel disappointed to have not made the list, consider yourself relieved of duty in thinking up and posting about 5 other blogs that make you think. It was more difficult than I thought it would be.

Commence regular writerly discussion…

1. My last name is von Rothkirch, which is German. People assume I’m German. I’m 50% Swedish and 25% Norwegian. My grandfather made up my last name in the 1940s. I suppose if he’d stuck with his real last name, my last name would be Tkach. Don’t ask me to pronounce that! Some have told me that’s Czech. So I might be a fraction Czech, spiced with copious amounts of Viking blood.
2. In the fourth grade I scored eighth grade reading level and second grade math. I always aced reading, and later foreign languages. Nobody seemed to care about this. I was always a bad kid for failing math. At least it means I won’t end up in a Special Education writing class… I hope.
3. I play guitar. I was in a rock band as a teenager. No we weren’t famous, but we wanted to be. The band went through several incarnations. It started as a bad grunge metal band then evolved into new wave and electronica then into hardcore indie. Here is a song we played live around 1997 in the basement of Extreme Noise record shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota. You guess which phase we were in, and when you figure it out tell me because I have no clue.
4. I went to an Audio Recording Specialist program at a technical college. I wanted to be a music producer, along with 20 other kids in the class. Butch Vig was my hero. I wonder how many ended up as famous music producers? I learned a lot about sound, the human ear, and recording. It pushed me towards sound design for games, so I guess I owe my current job to that.
5. I started in the game industry as a level designer. Now I’m a sound designer. I tell people I enjoy writing. This confuses people. That’s okay, a lot of things about me confuse people — like why I enjoy doing so many varied things, none of which I excel at. Jack of all trades, master of none. I prefer Dirty Dilettante. It sounds more dashing. When your hobby becomes your job then it’s time for you to find a new hobby. Trust me on that.

Now you know more than you could ever possibly want to know about me. Thanks Kristin!

About that outline…

The prize is…

Head on over and find out!