I'm a programmer from the San Francisco Bay Area. Although I'm not directly involved in writing or similar activities, my parents were hard-core science fiction fans, and I grew up knowing a lot of fairly popular writers. Also, my aunt has had several SF and Fantasy novels published.
Tropes I've Created:
Works & Creator pages:
Other Stuff
Tropes that apply to me (more or less):
- Always Male: (so far).
- Hippie Parents: more or less. The well-educated college graduate flavor.
- Mathematician's Answer: as a programmer, I tend to overuse this.
- My Nayme Is... based on the label of a present my mom gave me one Xmas.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: I've been using "Xtifr" ("X" for short) for so long now—decades—that many people don't seem to realize I have another name—or, more precisely, that it has a more conventional spelling.
This is my Quick-and-Dirty Sandbox
Michael Kurland is a writer of
Speculative Fiction and
Mystery Fiction. Michael Kurland is also a character in the
Hugo-nominated science fiction novel,
The Butterfly Kid, by Chester Anderson (which also starred Anderson), and its sequel,
The Unicorn Girl, by...Michael Kurland (which introduced the character of Tom "T.A." Waters, who wrote the third book in the series).
Kurland has also written two novels in the
Lord Darcy series, and a variety of other SF, and the
Professor Moriarty series featuring the
Sherlock Holmes villain as an
Anti-Hero. The first of the Moriarty novels,
The Infernal Device, was nominated for an Edgar award.
Works by Michael Kurland provide examples of:
- Alternate Universe: The Unicorn Girl features quite a bit of world-hopping, as does The Whenabouts of Burr.
- Amnesiac Liar: In the Moriarty novel, The Empress of India, Sherlock Holmes manages to do it to himself. He has a secret identity as a criminal, as a way of keeping an eye on the criminal underworld. When he suffers a Tap on the Head and wakes up in this lair, he deduces that this is his true identity, and proceeds to become a successful criminal.
- Devil in Plain Sight: In The Unicorn Girl, the people with the Weirdness Censor regarding nudity are easy prey for immodest criminals.
- Flying Saucer: One repeatedly shows up around the same time as the world-shifting BLIPs in The Unicorn Girl.
- Naked People Are Funny: In The Unicorn Girl, Michael and friends are visiting a Victorian-style world, when they come across a bunch of people frolicking naked in a field, who begin to spell out obscenities with their bodies as the travellers pass by.
- Spy From Weights And Measures: used as a cover for his two agents in The Whenabouts of Burr.
- Weirdness Censor: In The Unicorn Girl, in the Victorian-style world they visit, most people are utterly unable to see anyone nude. This proves handy for our heroes when they have to make a hasty escape.
