Mike Shea, 20 May 2000
Updated 5 December 2007
Michael Erik Shea is a writer, game player, technologist, and webmaster living in Vienna, Virginia. He is the author, webmaster, lead editor, and administrator of Liquidtheater.com, MikeShea.net, eqwire.com, and loralciriclight.com . Mike also writes Massive Online Game editorials for Mobhunter . Mike's interests include reading, writing, science fiction, fantasy, movies, music, home theater technology and media, pen-and-paper gaming, massive online gaming, console gaming, journaling, fountain pens, and technology of any age whether it is an iPhone or vellum and iron gaul ink.
Michael Erik Shea was born in Chicago, Illinois on 17 May 1973 to Robert Joseph Shea and Yvonne Bremseth Shea. Mike's father, Robert Joseph Shea, was the co-author of the political science fiction trilogy, Illuminatus, as well as Shike, All Things Are Lights, The Sarasen, and Shaman.
Mike grew up in Glencoe, Illinois and went to grammar and high school in the northern suburbs of Chicago. It was upon reading the first cyberpunk novel, Neuromancer, by William Gibson, that Mike began to think of computers as something "cool".
Mike graduated from New Trier Township High School in 1991 and went to Indiana State University for five years, graduating with a degree in Electronics Technology and Computer Technology (very unfortunately named majors for a four year degree).
During this period Mike was introduced to the "internet" by his friend and roommate, Matt Baker. After seeing the first Mosaic browser and being so hip to new trends, Mike dismissed it as a clunky fad and went back to working on his Dungeons and Dragons module and reading God Emperor of Dune.
In 2000 Mike began spending almost all of his free time in the massive multiplayer role playing game, Everquest, and hosted a character website called loralciriclight.com, the name of his Elven Cleric, Loral Ciriclight, on the Quellious server. This site contains over 50 chapters of fan fiction. Loral belonged to the guild Healers United, a guild that promotes friendship and well being instead of loot and power, on the Quellious server. Mike began writing editorials for the Everquest site Mobhunter. Mike's philosophy towards massive online gaming can be read in Why I Play Everquest.
In 2004 Mike fell back in love with Dungeons and Dragons, a game he played in his later years of high school and into college. In 2007, Mike ran two ongoing campaigns in the worlds of the Forgotten Realms and Eberron. In that same year, Mike attended Gencon, the largest tabletop and RPG conference in the world which revitalized his ideal for a world ran by nerds.
Mike believes that Computers Suck and that the simplicity and fixed architecture of video game consoles are the future of real computer use. In early 2007, Mike switched to Mac with his purchase of his first MacBook in protest to Windows Vista, an operating system built entirely around the paranoia of the corrupt Hollywood machine.
In 2005 Mike released his first book of twenty one short stories, Vrenna and the Red Stone and Other Tales. This book contains the first stories in the world of Faigon, a mixture of bronze age deserts, dark fantasy, old lost empires, and seventeenth century style monarchies with flint locks, three-cornered hats, telepathic secret societies, demons, and vampires. Mike wrote a series of other short stories including Vrenna and the Well, Vrenna and the Little King, The Bear, The Gray Wolf, Jon and Celenda, Dan Trex, Kadin and the Noble's Daughter, and Dear Kal-El.
In November 2007, Mike hand wrote "Seven Swords", a full length 50,000 word novel based in his fantasy world, Faigon, as part of National Novel Writing Month.
Mike soon grew to loathe the complexity of modern technology and began to love the Moleskine, the snobby black notebook used by such giants as Chatwin and Van Gogh. This love matured into the area of fountain pens loaded with his favorite Noodler's Black ink. He carries a Moleskine and a Pilot Vanishing Point fountain pen wherever he goes.
Mike is a recent Getting Things Done acolite, Mike began to sort his entire life into a series of "lists" containing "things" he wished to get "done".
Mike believes in the long term preservation of our digital lives. To this end, Mike has created a self-generating Life Backup of all of his writings, favorite photos, saved web pages, and short story collections rebuilt daily and hosted at "http://mikeshea.net/lifebackup.tar.gz".
Mike lives in Vienna, VA with his wife, Michelle, and their dog, Jebu.
Permanent Email: mike@mikeshea.net
This work is released under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license. Please send comments or questions to mike@mikeshea.net.